Nigeria's box office sales drop from ₦819m to ₦278m in 1 month

Ope Ajayi, CEAN's National Chairman, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, added that the cinemas also had 122,295 gross admission within the period under review.

Cinemas experienced a drastic decline in sales in February when compared with ₦819 million made in January.

Ajayi blamed the cash crunch and poor network service delivery being experienced by POS operators nationwide for the decline in sales.

He similarly noted that cinemas experienced an all-time lull in the week of the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

He explained further that cinemas had limited content to exhibit in the month of February, as movie producers avoided releasing movies during the election period.

"A couple of reasons are responsible for the drop in sales. We lost a weekend of sales during the Presidential and National Assembly elections, Nigerians' attention was focused on voting across the country.

"Cash crunch and POS failures, affecting trading generally are also affecting the cinemas.

"Many movie producers and distributors avoided releasing movies during the election period. So, content was also somewhat limited," he said.

Ajayi said the top films exhibited in cinemas across the country in February were 'Antman' and 'Love in a Pandemic'.

He listed films to watch out for in the month of March as 'Creed III', 'What Love Got To Do With It', 'Shazam: Fury Of The Gods, 'John Wick IV', 'Different Strokes' and 'Dungeons and Dragons'.