The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) said on Tuesday that nationwide movie theatre ticket sales in February totaled N278 million.
The National Chairman of CEAN, Mr. Ope Ajayi, who made this disclosure in a Lagos interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), noted that the theatres had 122,295 gross admissions over the course of the review period.
Compared to January’s N819 million in sales, February saw a sharp drop in attendance at theatres.
Ajayi attributed the drop in sales to the cash crunch and subpar network service delivery that POS operators nationwide are dealing with.
He also mentioned how the week of the Presidential and National Assembly elections saw an all-time low in movie attendance.
He continued by saying that because movie producers refrained from producing films during the election season, February’s movie offerings at theatres were restricted.
“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 is also affecting the cinemas.
“Many movie producers and distributors avoided releasing movies during the election period. So, content was also somewhat limited,” he said.
