Ten weeks after its December release and shattering every imaginable record on the way, Funke Akindele’s mega-hit, “A Tribe Called Judah” bows out of the Nigerian Box Office with N1.4 billion (N1,404,187,806 to be precise).
This is excluding the £83,000 (N132 million) and 3.5 million CFA francs (N9.29 million) it pocketed at the UK and other Francophone African markets respectively, according to data from the Nigerian Box Office.
“A Tribe Called Judah,” a story about a single mother with five problematic sons who try to turn around the family’s financial status by robbing a mall, will forever be remembered as the movie that broke the previously elusive One Billion Naira mark, doing so in just three weeks!
It finished 2023 with N734 million – the highest of the year – and spilled its success over to the new year, earning an additional N680 million, also making it the highest grosser of 2024.
By mid-January, pressure from newer releases meant weakened legs and fewer ticket sales. Despite the shaky legs, the movie accounted for over 48% of the entire box office of the January 19, 2024, weekend with N84.6 million.
For more than a month since then, it added just N65 million.
Between January 12 and January 18, 2024, data released by the Cinemas Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) revealed that the movie experienced a 55% drop in ticket sales for N84 million,, which is a stark contrast to its 25% drop in its fourth weekend where it swooped N132 million in just three days.
Among the many records it had conquered on its way include the first Nollywood movie to have consecutive weekly admissions of over 100,000, the most weekends with over N100 million, and the fastest movie to reach N500 million.
Although information as to the movie’s production and marketing budgets remains unclear, the profitability of “A Tribe Called Judah” is beyond doubt.