Despite been rated as the second-largest movie industry in the world in terms of film output, surpassing Hollywood in the U.S., and second only to Bollywood in India, some Nigerians are still not impressed with Nollywood movies and see no reason why they have to patronise the industry.
This is a question one will always consider as a rhetorical question for a long time until recently we interviewed some Nigerians why they prefer foreign movies to Nollywood movies.
We got most of the answers that we have thought they cannot be provided. We discovered that there are reasons for that common phrase, ‘I don’t watch that Nigerian movies’ that we hear on a daily basis. You may not totally agree with these reasons but we are going to share them with you.
· Lack of Good Quality
During the interview, almost everyone we spoke to disowned Nollywood movies and pointed to the fact that Nigerian movies lack good quality, adding that when you come across some movies, you will keep wondering if these casts are truly professional.
There are too many movies out there of which are low budget productions. How can you have a good quality movie with that?
· Wack Story Line
Another point that keeps popping up during the interview is ‘Story line’. A strong movie has to include an attractive and appealing story. With good plots, the audience will have lasting impression. Many Nigerian movies don’t have logical conclusion and at the middle or the end of the movie will leave you wondering how the movies find there ways into the market.
To make a great movie, you are going on a tough mission and to succeed, you must first have an attractive story line, good actors and a good director. People need to know that movies they want to see are worth there time because no one is actually interested in a film with a shallow plot that they cannot relate with.
· Subtitle
When you look at subtitle of some Nigerian movies, bad grammars, wrong spellings will be flowing like water and this is very embarrassing to the industry and to the country as a whole as these errors can be avoided.
The list goes on but anyone familiar with Nollywood movies in recent time will tell you how things work now and set of actors and producers you can look out for that will never disappoint you. Also, we also need to support Nollywood as the industry is good for our economy because they also contribute their quota.
Finally, Nollywood must find a way to gain back people’s trust. This can only be achieved if the regulating bodies can checkmate the activities of the movie producers, and charge them to focus on quality movies and not quantity.
It is not about the quantity but the quality of the movies made per year. An example of that is Nollywood superstar Genevieve Nnaji’s movie, LionHeart that was acquired by Netflix, the world’s seventh-largest internet company by revenue based in America. Netflix acquired the movie for a whooping sum of $3.8million.
Another example is a political thriller film written, co-produced and directed by Kemi Adetiba, King of Boys which is one the most sensational and breath taking movies by Nollywood. The movie has raked in 245 million so far in Box Office.
When people watch movies, let them see magic, they want to be entertained and leave everything else they’re doing without interference. Let them be spellbound!
