Nollywood actor and former reality TV star, Pere Egbi, has joined the growing voices slamming cinemas in Nigeria for favouritism.
According to him, some cinemas favour some films to the detriment of others, instead of enabling a level playing field for everyone to thrive.
Pere Egbi said this in reaction to a video by actor Femi Branch who called out the cinema industry for killing a lot of filmmakers just to favour a few.
Femi Branch said, “Cinemas are to give you screen time. But when they see that another film is popular, they will take your screen time and give it to the popular one.
“It is not the business of the cinema to tell anybody what to watch. It is not the business of a cinema to market a film for a producer over another producer.”
Reacting, Pere Egbi stated that everything revealed by his colleague “is pure facts.”
He continued, “Honestly, I was planning to wait until the end of January 2025 before making any moves, but at this point, I’m saying, “F*** it, let’s go!
“This nonsense some cinemas do—hiding films, poor screen times—it happened to The Silent Intruder, my film. I spent over 150 million naira of my personal funds just on production, borrowed another 11 million naira from a friend in London, and still ended up being shown shege by cinemas. Imagine spending over 200 million naira (pre-production to post-production), and the film only made 53 million naira in cinemas. Out of that, I personally got just 8 million naira.
“It’s been almost 11 months since its release, and I’ve seen no Netflix or Prime Video deal. Meanwhile, films that premiered alongside mine are already streaming. Because of all this mess, I had to leave Nigeria and return to America to work, just so I can pay back the kind-hearted woman who lent me the money.
“At this point, I don’t care about being blacklisted. If nothing comes through by the end of January, I’ll release the film on YouTube myself. Enough is enough.”
His words corroborate complaints aired on social media by Toyin Abraham and Mercy Aigbe who both have movies currently screening in cinemas.
