In Nigeria, some movie stars have proven again and again that they can guarantee return on investment as long as their faces adorn the poster.
They are Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Omoni Oboli, Funke Akindele and Nse Ikpe-Etim.
Or
how else could one explain the success of box office hits like Mirror
Boy, Ije, and Tango With Me all having Genevieve Nnaji starring in them?
And what about Figurine and Anchor Baby which both starred Omoni Oboli
as the lead actress?
Mirror
Boy, Tango With Me, Last Flight to Abuja and Phone Swap all had
sizeable negative reviews, yet they topped the box office, made huge
profit and left many Hollywood movies far behind.
Below is a list of Nollywood’s five bankable actresses, their earnings and what is possibly working for them.
Genevieve Nnaji
Topping
the list of five is Genevieve Nnaji. Love or hate her, Genny as she is
fondly called, has a way with cinema audiences that make them come back
again and again for her movies.
So
far, Genevieve’s starring in the movies has grossed over N83 million at
the box office. Mirror Boy (described by the actress as her first major
film and the first to put her at the box-office) made N18 million,
while Ije netted N60 million turning out to be Nigeria’s highest
grossing movie ever. But Genevieve had to share the money with Omotola,
who also acted alongside her. If the sharing formula is 50-50, then
Genevieve gets N30 million of the total gross.
Genevieve’s
next movie, Tango with Me went on to make N35 million. So, putting all
the figures together, Genny remains at the head of the pack. What seem
to be working for Genevieve are her enduring power, popularity and
social media connection. The actress has been there for over a decade
and is still waxing stronger. Her wine seems to taste better with age.
Another
plus for Genny is her popularity. Genevieve is hugely popular across
Africa and most especially among the youths. Before now, she has been
very active on the social media especially Twitter. She even had to put
up a Facebook advert after reports emerged that some acts were ahead of
her there.
Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde
Next
on the list is Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde with box-office gross of N60
million. She made N24 million with Last Flight to Abuja, N6 million from
Private Storm and her N30 million share in Ije bring her total earning
to N60 million.
This
year alone, no actress has made as much as N24 million from a single
movie; Funke Akindele would have done so with The Return of Jenifa but
the movie hit the box office in 2011.
Omotola,
who was reported to have been paid N5 million by Tarila Thompson all in
the bid to make his movie a blockbuster, has been described as the
biggest box office actress of 2012. She recorded successes back to back
but it remains to be seen if she can pull off the box office magic again
with Amina and other movies coming in 2013.
Omotola
has been an A-list actress even before Genevieve got her first big
break and so what has been working for her is the wise investment in her
brand. Her enduring presence and unceasing contact with her fans via
the social media has made her popular even in an environment where a
mother of four like her is not fashionable.
Funke Akindele
Surprisingly,
the third person on the list is Funke Akindele, a young lady who rose
to fame in I Need To Know, a TV series, and went on to earn a monstrous
fame with Jenifa.
Funke
is an unlikely candidate on this list. Now, how can one explain that
she is third on a list parading heavy weights like Omoni Oboli, Nse
Ikpe-Etim and Stephanie Okereke among others?
So
far, Funke has made over N56 million, netting over N20 million in 2012
alone. In The Return of Jenifa, Funke netted N35 million. The movie ran
till February 2012. Her movie, Married but Living Single made N9.9
million while Maami made N11 million. The actress is on her way to
another cinema glory with a movie, A Wish. Let’s hope she will be able
to wave the magical wand again and create a box-office success.
For Funke who recently got married, the plus factor for her is her huge popularity among the masses and elites.
Her
movie, Jenifa cuts across all social groups with the street parlance in
it becoming the mode of communication in social gathering. And as an
icing on the cake, Funke has moved upscale, she is now the toast of
events organized by the rich and not so rich. Her box office credibility
transcends the cinema as all DVDs parading her face turn into gold.
Omoni Oboli
Omoni
Oboli, who is still largely unknown to those who don’t patronise the
cinema and social media, is fourth on the list. She is a silent
achiever. Before the trio of Genevieve, Omotola and Funke even dreamt of
hitting the box office, Omoni Oboli already took the lead. Figurine,
her first box office appearance made N13 million while her second
effort, Anchor Baby made N18 million bringing her total earning to
N31million.
Omoni’s
strength is her exclusivity and knack for quality. It is a known fact
that if the project is not big and ambitious, Omoni might not do it. The
disadvantage of that is, despite her box office credibility, Omoni is
still unknown in areas where there is no access to cinemas. Perhaps,
that is the reason she tries to make up with the red carpet presence.
For
now, the exclusivity is working for Omoni; perhaps her new movie,
Broken and other works will introduce a new twist. One other thing that
should not be forgotten is the unprecedented publicity of Anchor Baby in
2010. The film also had Omoni at the forefront of meeting and greeting
of fans at the cinemas.
Nse Ikpe-Etim
The
fifth slot belongs to Nse Ikpe-Etim. She seems to be the latest
sensation in big budget movies. In Mr and Mrs, Nse was a delight, her
performance was a reference point and it was a hook that kept drawing
people to the cinema while the movie was there.
Mr and Mrs made N6 million while another of her film, Phone Swap made N20 million, making a total of N26 million.
Too
early for Nse to cement her place, as she hasn’t done N15 million
back-to-back but one thing the actress has made clear is that she has
intention of doing that. The leading four acts should be afraid of Nse
because her strength lies in her pure acting talent.
Nse
is born to act, deemed to be unnecessarily assertive a times, but you
can’t accuse her of not knowing her lines. And she pushes her movies
with virgour, moving from one cinema to the other.