TOP 5 RICHEST NIGERIAN'S FEMALE ACTRESSES
box-office. They include good script, experienced director,
professional publicist, and most importantly, the big name
stars.
Of all the four, there is one a producer should never violate
at the market place and that is the ‘star’ aspect of it. There
could be a bad script, inexperienced director and not too
good publicity for the movie but it is almost impossible to
have Return On Investment (ROI) with un-bankable stars.
Wikipedia defines a bankable star to be an actor famous or
charismatic enough to be “capable of guaranteeing box-office
success simply by showing up in a movie”. It is common
knowledge that a Will Smith will sell any movie no matter
how bad as long as he has his face on the jacket.
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. Here, The Entertainer takes a look at
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.
However, Nse should watch it as many have accused her of
being too ‘self-conscious’, a term casually used for budding
stars who have ‘over-hyped’ impression of themselves as this
could alienate fans who make the box-office count.
Rita Dominic and Stephanie Okereke
Rita Dominic and Stephanie Okereke should readily make
the list but they haven’t appeared at the cinemas more than
once. Hopefully, Rita will break into the list with The
Meeting, Lion of 76 and Street of Calabar while Stephanie
already had N10 million under her belt with Through the
Glass.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rules. A bankable star
makes easier the job of a producer; the absence of one,
however, is not a ready-made doom for a movie as Avatar
and Slumdog Millionaire (both global box office hits) have
shown. But if one would take a risk or err, it’s better to err
on the part of caution.
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