Rita Dominic, AY and Lancelot on the right movies for cinemas
The trend in Nollywood now is taking all movies to the cinemas, whether cinema worthy or not. But despite might be because there is no understanding on the qualities of a cinema movie or, the economic of Nollywood movies in the hand of piracy and low patronage of CD. Rita Dominic, AY and Lancelot Imasuen have all spoken about the cinema trend.
Rita Dominic who was the first to speak out in a post said: “Nobody sets out to make a bad film, but so many of those compromises are made and often they’re made because of vanity, pride and ego.” Following the post was her comment which read: “Let the quality of work match the hype!! #nollywood #noteverymovieshouldbeincinemas”.
She was met with different response with people, who mostly agreed with her.
CINEMA MOVIE DISCUSSION
In response to this, AY and Lancelot also stated their own opinion. AY said to LIB that:
“Rita Dominic actually made her point. I had a chat with her on other issues barely 24 hours before her post. I guess it was just a general statement to better the industry. I am only a baby producer in the industry with 3 movies that made it to the cinemas with good box office records/Guinness world records. Judging from where we are coming from, I’m impressed with the growth of Nollywood. The Cinema owners have their criteria and standards for screening any movie they show to the public. All i do is stay in my lane and do what i am supposed to do. Anyone have the right to say Timi Dakolo is a better singer than Davido, but they are both appreciated seperately in the showbiz world based on their different markets. So the seriousness and technicalities you expect from the movie 76 by Izu Ojukwu, should be different from an Ay’ 30 Days in Atlanta that is designed to make you laugh”.
Lancelot Imasuen the filmmaker also had this to say: ”In our closet we also talk about it that the cinemas should also be mindful of what they take from Nollywood because we are having a problem. Everybody is talking about Black Panther. Even Atiku is went to watch Black Panther but I have asked people when they come out of the cinemas, if they understand the foreign film they went to watch? Many people are just following trend. A lot of people do not understand the movie, they just went to watch because their friend went to watch.
He continued by saying:
It is not all kinds of films that should really make the cinemas. There are films that are deliberately made for home viewing, internet viewing, private view. Cinema films should have a lot of high pitch, entertainment. I am strongly with Rita Dominic that it is not all fims that should be taken to the cinemas. The cinema operators should also have an internal mechanism to identify the movies that should be taken to the cinemas. The question will now be what are the yardstick for measuring films that should cinematically viewed? We should leave the audience to determine the fims that should be cinematically viewed 99.9% of movies that get to the cinemas fail because they cannot make back their returns. They use hype, Instagram and social media razzmattazz to cover it up. Did you the advert of Black Panther on Nigerian tv? The actors are not doing meet and greet in the cinemas. Howcome, for three weeks now, the cinemas are being flooded? Who advertised the film. Several of Nollywood movies are failing because they cannot meet the small budgets that was used to make them. No Nigerian film has ever made movie in the cinemas. Most of the movies end up in the red carpet. People just go to the premiere to take selfies and that is the end. What Rita said is not out of place. She did not put it well. There is no yardstick for measuring movies that should make the cinema”
