On The Trail Of Nollywood's Stolen Billions

The African communities in London's South-East boroughs provide Nigerian movies one of their biggest reception in the world. But fame and popularity are the only gains accruing to the industry fondly known as Nollywood from the more than six million black population in Queenland. Hundreds of thousands of pounds accruable to producers in distributional and rental revenues are either lost to piracy and phony distributors or are totally untraceable, according to findings by Steve Ayorinde

The more Nollywood movies are exported to the UK, the less producers make according to filmmakers, analysts and London-based Nigerian marketers/distributors who express worry over the industry’s vulnerability in earning potential.

Owing to piracy and leaky distributional networks, Nollywood movies have become victims of massive exploitation, according to London-based director, Ayo Shonaiya, whose 1998 film, King of my Country, was massively pirated. He has had to cancel his distribution deal with a London marketer/distributor for his last film, Spin, after the latter contravened the exclusive sales distribution deal by renting out the film illegally.

Similarly, the director of Afro-Hollywood awards, which enters its 12th consecutive edition in London this year, Mr. Mike Abiola, says many of the marketers have finished paying off their mortgages selling only Nollywood films. He has delayed the release of three of his films until he is guaranteed to recoup their investments. Distributors, he explains, make a huge profit from renting out the films illegally, while deceiving producers that discs owned by buyers were copied from the web or from rented copies.

Using the sales formula in Lagos where distribution is largely kept out of the cinema theatres, Nollywood movies are sold at video stores, video-clubs, bars and restaurants, barber shops or major markets patronised by African-Caribbean communities. They are sold either through direct DVD and Video Compact Disc or rentals all over south-east London. In recent times, the movies are also being distributed online, through known dealers, who declare meagre returns to producers, and those who simply run pirate web distribution companies, selling and renting out films, without authorization or remittance to the owners.

According to producers, conservative estimation of revenue on a movie is less than £3,000 (about N800, 000). But respected filmmaker, Tunde Kelani, thinks the figure is far less, declaring that he has not made up to £5,000 (about N1.3million) in total revenue from all his seven movies marketed in London.

"If Nollywood will collapse, I think it will come from the Diasporan market, where our films are popular but from where we get nothing," he said. He was recently approached by a London-based Nigerian distributor for the exclusive right to distribute his movie, Abeni 2. "He wanted only 500 copies at £1 each. I thought it was ridiculous to earn only £500 from my film and therefore rejected the offer. It will be pirated anyway," he stated.

Considerable revenue from television rights is also lost to virtually all the four black television stations in London - Ben TV 1 and 2, Passion TV and the Original Black Entertainment, which all have multiple daily showings of Nigerian movies.

Indeed, the infrastructure of piracy in the London market for Nollywood movies underscores producers' frustration that informed the joint attempt in 2006 by the Association of Movie Producers, the Nigerian Copyright Commission and the Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group to stem the tide of piracy and undeclared revenues for Nigerian movies. The goup estimated that the industry loses about $400m (about N52billion) every year to internet pirates, illegal distributors and broadcast organizations airing their films without authorization. More than a quarter of this potential revenue is perceived to be lost in the UK where new Nollywood movie on DVD sells for £5, and £4 on VCD. Old ones are sold openly around Dolston and Totenham Court Road markets for £1, the same price paid by film buffs to rent one film.

With Nigerians now recognised as the largest black community in the UK, officially estimated at 1.5 million population (excluding the illegal immigrants), producers estimate that if only five per cent of that population buys one Nigerian movie in a year and rent 10 at £1 each, that should guarantee a yearly revenue of £375,000 (about N97, 500m) revenues on sales on a movie and £750,000 (about N195, 000m) revenue from 10 different movies rented by 75,000 people in a single year.

But Nollywood only gets a fraction of this estimate, according to the director of Twisted, Niyi Towolawi, because the industry has no way of monitoring how much it sells. The other reason is that the acceptance of these movies as culture staple may not have translated into sellable artistic products using conventional means of distribution. Towolawi advocates a mainstream release through cinemas for producers to make some returns before their films eventually go on DVDs. His film is the first Nollywood to be accorded a nationwide distribution in Britain by the cinema chain, Odeon.

The London market in Southwark and Lewisham boroughs had welcomed Nigerian video-films right from the early 1990s when harsh economy could no longer sustain celluloid films and the cinema culture. Other Africans and Caribeans have also embraced the movies for their role in advancing the argument for an alternative image in the cultural identity of the black Diaspora in the UK. Yet, the industry that thrives on digital technology has become under-priced and underpaid, totally vulnerable to the machinations of the piracy-prone new technology.

Many of the distributors and video-clubs such as Segun Akindaini's African Video Centre, one of the first and the biggest in Peckham; Phillip Dada's Sound Image; Pat Eleto's Solid Rock Entertainment; and Wilson Akintunde's Klub Afrik, which provides online rental services for members allowed to "keep the films for as long as they want," are still functioning in London selling Nigerian movies.

However, a former producer and distributor, Mr. Ola Ogunloye, of Video Direct, thinks the vague ownership structure of many of the films may be responsible for the low revenue being remitted to Nigerian producers. He is obviously referring to directors, producers and executive producers often laying claims to the ownership of a particular film with the aim of profiting at the expense of the real owners.

He adds that most Nollywood audience belongs to low-income group and that affects sales.

www.punchng.com