Nollywood just made global history. Black Market, the crime thriller from Rixel Studios, has officially broken the Guinness World Record for the largest audience at a single-location film screening, with more than 51,000 people watching the film together at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) in Lagos on Saturday, September 26.
Here's the full story, from the studio behind it to how the night itself played out.
What is Black Market about
Black Market follows five market women running a tightly organised smuggling operation across Nigeria's borders. Their operation runs smoothly until a rival syndicate kidnaps the daughter of one of the women, forcing the group to fight to protect both their business and each other.
The film was shot in Abeokuta, Ogun State, and marks the theatrical directorial debut of Fatimah Binta Gimsay, who also co-wrote the script with Abdul Tijani-Ahmed.
The cast includes Lateef Adedimeji, Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Ibrahim Yekini (Itele D Icon), Scarlet Gomez, Omowunmi Dada, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok and Uzor Arukwe.
The studio behind the record attempt
Black Market is Rixel Studios' second feature, following its 2025 debut Red Circle. The studio is led by Nora Awolowo, who also produced the film alongside Nicole Ofoegbu, with Omowunmi Dada, Oreoluwa Awolowo, Susan Pwajok and Mike Afolarin serving as executive producers.
Announcing the record attempt back in July, Awolowo framed it as a natural next step for the studio after Red Circle. "We are excited to go on this journey as a team, and we have taken a lot of learnings from our previous film," she said. "As young filmmakers, one of our aims is to continue to creatively look for ways to innovate."
Pulling off a screening at that scale needed more than a studio and a cast, though. Rixel partnered with FilmOne Studios and Switch Visuals Production to actually stage the event, with Switch Visuals CEO Damilola Osikoya leading the production side of turning TBS into what organisers described as one giant open-air cinema.
FilmOne's Chief Content Officer, Ladun Awobokun, had also been vocal about what the attempt meant for the industry ahead of the screening. "This is more than a film project," she said. "It's an opportunity to create history and showcase Nigerian creativity and Nollywood on a global stage." The Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture also backed the event, alongside a number of corporate sponsors.
The record they were chasing
The record had stood for close to eleven years before Saturday. On October 4, 2015, Iglesia Ni Cristo and VIVA Films gathered 43,624 people at the Philippine Arena for the premiere of the biographical film Felix Manalo, earning Guinness titles for both the largest film screening attendance and the largest film premiere audience.
Rixel Studios announced its intention to break that record in July, setting a target of 50,000 attendees for the Black Market premiere, a goal that meant building a full outdoor cinema experience from scratch rather than simply booking out an existing venue.
How the night played out
Gates opened at TBS at 2pm on Saturday, with long queues forming well before that as attendees arrived early. A red carpet segment began around 3pm, featuring appearances from Nollywood figures including Kunle Remi, Stan Nze and Blessing Obasi, alongside Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat and the state's Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Toke Benson.
The event also featured music, food and games ahead of the main screening, which began at 7pm.
Lagos State officials put total attendance at the event at 64,000. Guinness World Records, however, confirmed a qualifying figure of over 51,000, based on the number of viewers who stayed from the start of the film through to the end, the actual metric the record measures.
Why this matters for Nollywood
Beating a record set at a religious mega-event in the Philippines was never going to be simple logistics. Crowd management, sound and visibility across a public square built for rallies rather than cinema, and verifying who actually watched the whole film all had to hold up to Guinness's standards. That the attempt succeeded, and by a comfortable margin over the 50,000 target, puts Nollywood in the record books for a milestone that has nothing to do with box office numbers and everything to do with sheer scale, and puts Rixel Studios' young team squarely at the centre of it.
