![]() Armed with much-needed government support, they oversaw the construction of multiplexes beginning in 2004. None of these venues would exist had it not been for the ingenuity of a number of Nigerian businessmen. Omoni Oboli’s Wives on Strike: The Revolution (2017), for instance, accomplished this feat in early 2017, eclipsing Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson, 2017) at all of the major Nigerian multiplexes as well as at LightHouse Cinemas, a 4-screen theater located in a shopping mall in Warri, in Nigeria’s Delta State. Today, the industry competes for screen time and audience attention with a growing number of lavish local productions, some of which have even outperformed films in the Star Wars franchise. In 1999, democratic rule was ostensibly restored, and Hollywood, after a long period of estrangement, returned to Nigeria with a new determination to tap the national market. “Nollywood,” the eventual name of one of many direct-to-video film industries in Africa, emerged to fill the gap. Several were transformed into Pentecostal churches. During the next three decades of mostly military rule, virtually all of Nigeria’s major movie theaters were shuttered. American companies both large and small were committed to the construction and refurbishing of Nigerian movie theaters, at least until the Biafran Civil War (1967 – 1970) devastated the country and led to the abandonment of Hollywood’s many outposts there. By 1962, six of the biggest Hollywood studios, including MGM and Twentieth Century-Fox, had permanent offices in Lagos. Shortly after the country achieved independence from Britain in 1960, it magnetized movie companies from around the world. If the cinemas shut down a second time, many feared, they would never open again, and Nigeria would find itself back in an unenviable position-a populous country without a single significant movie theater.įor postcolonial Nigeria, direct participation in the world economy has always involved the pursuit and development of cinematic infrastructure. ![]() No sooner had movie theaters reopened in the fall of 2020 than COVID-19 experienced a resurgence in Nigeria. ![]() Going to the movies was, once again, impossible-an unwelcome reminder, for many Nigerians, of a time, not that long ago, when urban crime, military dictatorship, and general economic disaster helped strip the country of the silver screen. For over seven months-from March until October 2020-all of Nigeria’s movie theaters were shut down. ![]()
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