Every December, Nollywood announces another “highest-grossing film of all time”, with box-office figures climbing from hundreds of millions to billions of naira. But there is a problem with comparing these figures across years: the naira in 2016 is not the same as the naira in 2026.
For example, The Wedding Party earned ₦452.3 million in 2016, when the dollar traded at roughly ₦490 on the parallel market. That amounted to approximately $923,000. Years later, Behind the Scenes reportedly earned ₦2.76 billion. At an exchange rate of about ₦1,377 to the dollar, that is roughly $2 million.
In nominal naira, Behind the Scenes earned about six times as much as The Wedding Party. In dollar terms, however, the difference is closer to 2.2 times. That distinction matters when trying to understand how Nigerian films have performed commercially over time.
There is nothing wrong with reporting box-office revenue in naira. The problem arises when nominal naira figures from different currency eras are placed side by side without accounting for depreciation and rising ticket prices. A film can earn more naira while attracting fewer cinema-goers than an older film.
A more meaningful historical comparison should therefore consider three figures: nominal naira revenue, estimated dollar value and admissions. Naira revenue shows local earnings, dollar conversion provides a rough way to compare monetary value across different periods, while admissions show the actual size of a film’s cinema audience.
When the figures are viewed this way, the ranking changes considerably. Omo Ghetto: The Saga moves from seventh in the naira ranking to second by estimated dollar value, while The Wedding Party 2 rises from 11th to fourth. Chief Daddy moves from 15th to fifth, while 30 Days in Atlanta makes one of the biggest jumps, moving from 44th to 10th.
Other films move in the opposite direction. Call of My Life falls from fifth to 18th, Gingerrr from eighth to 24th, and Alakada: Bad and Boujee from ninth to 26th. These changes do not mean the films performed worse; they simply show how much nominal naira rankings can be affected by currency depreciation and changing ticket prices.
There is also a major gap in publicly available admissions data. Consistent box-office reporting only became established in the late 2010s, and reliable final admissions figures are not available for many older films. Without those figures, it is difficult to say which films attracted the largest cinema audiences.
The lesson is simple: the film that collected the most naira is not necessarily the film that had the biggest audience or generated the greatest comparable value. Nollywood’s box-office records would tell a more accurate story if they measured revenue alongside admissions and changes in the naira’s value.
