Nollywood and Hollywood: A look from within

If a survey were to be conducted across the world about the three major film industries, United State’s Hollywood, India’s Bollywood and Nigeria’s Nollywood would make the top of that list. Hollywood is the most prominent name among the three and there is a possibility that Nollywood might not be known in some countries.

Over the years, there has been a growth in Hollywood film industry in every domain. Hollywood is home to many famous television and movie studios and record companies. However, it is quite unclear how the entertainment giant got its name. Thus, the statement: ‘There are different sides to a coin’ is very much applicable as regards the origin of the industry.

According to one story, after a married couple Daeida and Harvey learned there was an Ohio town called Hollywood, they named their ranch same and the name originally stuck. Another story says that H. J. Whitley came up with the name while on a honeymoon in the area sometime in 1886. The authenticity of these stories cannot be proven. However, all three people played a key role in the famous city’s development. Thus, Hollywood was born and began to climb the ladders till it got to the apex point of the film industry.

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In 2018, Hollywood was worth $41.7 billion (USD), approximately 30.1 per cent of the global film industry, making it not just the world’s oldest national film industry but also the largest in terms of box office gross revenue.

On the other hand, Nollywood is synonymous to the Nigerian film industry. Nollywood is probably ranked third after Hollywood and Bollywood respectively. The creation of Nollywood started in the 1960s. After Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the cinema business rapidly expanded with new cinema houses being established. As a result, Nigerian content began to pop-up in theatres in the late 1960s to 1970s. Since the mid-2000’s, during the decline of the video-film era, Nigerian cinemas have undergone some form of restructuring to promote quality in output and professionalism in the industry.

In 2009, the famous Nollywood movie, ‘The Figurine’, was considered by many to mark a major turnaround for contemporary Nigerian cinemas. There have been, ever since, revivals with cinema establishments, and a steady return of the cinema culture in Nigeria. This trend gradually continued, culminating in 2017, by the renowned movie, ‘The Wedding Party 2’ by Kemi Adetiba, which till date, remains Nigeria’s highest revenue grossing movie. One could say Nollywood has truly arrived.

According to African Renewals, Nollywood produces about fifty movies per week, second only to Bollywood but more than Hollywood. Although its revenue cannot be compared with Bollywood’s and Hollywood’s, Nollywood still generates an impressive $590 million annually.

Now, the question is: What core advantages do Hollywood have over other film industries, especially Nollywood? As previously mentioned, Hollywood is performing well considering its gross net worth. Hollywood is a much larger, older, advanced and well-structured when contrasted with Nollywood. It is graced with much higher budget investments. The average movie production in Hollywood takes longer, which is quite the opposite with Nollywood.

Apart from producing the best globally-accepted films with topnotch creative content, Hollywood is one of the power houses for the American economy. Statistics shows that Hollywood generates $20.6 billion of public revenue from sales taxes on goods, state income taxes, and federal taxes. It further provides employment opportunities to over 400,000 people in the United States alone. According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the American film and television industry supports 2.6 million jobs and pays out 117 billion dollars in total wages.

In a developing country like Nigeria, the film industry is undoubtedly helping create jobs in an economy that relies mainly on oil and agriculture. Although Nollywood is economically performing beyond average, it produces films below its potential standard. The Nigerian film industry still performs at a mediocre level when compared with other film industries.

Nollywood needs to increase their financial budget with a longer and standard production period. Hollywood produces several movies every year, but these films take a long time to produce because they want the quality of the film to be of high standard. The Nollywood produces about 1000 movies every year with very poor casting, visual effects, lighting, originality, sounds, background music, cinematography etc. They pay little or no attention to the quality of the movies they produce.

Furthermore, the themes used in Nollywood films also require creativity in order for the industry to gain prestige. There is constant repetition of themes, which portrays lack of initiative and innovation. Hollywood movies are usually themed around diverse topics, fictional and nonfictional. Contrarily, Nollywood movies are majorly themed around cliché, making the plots predictable and sometimes boring.

However, production for the ninth-highest grossing film of 2018, ‘Black Panther’, began in January 2011 when Mark Bailey was hired to write the script. The $200 million budgeted for the movie paid off as they replenished surplus money back. The box office for ‘Black Panther’ was $1.347 billion.

Motivation from Nigerian government and citizens would go a long way in improving Nollywood. Funding and investments from government would help Nollywood enormously. The government should include Nollywood as part of the beneficiaries of the country’s budget. Given its potential to generate immense revenue and to create jobs, government should take cues from Hollywood and dialogue with Nollywood stakeholders to invest and regulate the industry. The citizens are not to be excluded from this equation because their patronage is also required to take Nollywood to the next level.

Nollywood could be a force to reckon with if requisite adjustments could be made to the end-to-end production process of movies. It could strengthen its position as a global-top tier film industry, if Nigerians could render their unrelenting support to this notable industry.

Oluwajeminipe Fasheun-Motesho is an intern with the Nigerian Tribune