Nigeria’s flag will fly at full mast tomorrow in Berlin, Germany when Funke Akindele’s box office hit, ‘Battle on Buka Street,’ will screen at a premier film festival, dubbed ‘Box Office Around the World.’
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The festival presents six current cinema productions that are audience successes and box office hits in their countries of origin, but have not yet been seen on the big screen in Germany.
Curated by international film programmer and juror Dorothee Wenner, Akindele’s ‘Battle on Buka Street,’ which ended its theatrical run in Nigeria in April, and emerged as Nigeria’s highest grossing film, is one of the six films — Box office hits — around the world that will screen in Berlin and at Schlüterhof. This occasion will certainly become a meeting place for communities with film-loving Berliners across the world.
One aspect of the festival that a lot of people look forward to is the open-air screenings, and a thematic spotlight on the films and those behind the success of the films. For ‘Battle on Buka Street,’ the curator Dorothee Wenner have invited Funke Akindele and Moses Babatope for a two-hour special pre-screening spotlight starting at 7pm local time.
Currently running exclusively on Prime Video, the 2022 comedy film centres on two half-sisters who had previously had a lifetime of rivalry and set up food businesses on the same street. They found each other again and resumed their rivalry. A movie with a strong cast – a combination of veteran and emerging actors in Nollywood, including Mercy Johnson, Sola Sobowale, Bimbo Ademoye, Tina Mba, Femi Jacobs, and Kevin Ikeduba, it is the movie’s record breaking streak that has earned it an invitation to the prestigious Box Office Around The World Festival.
Jointly produced as a collaboration between Funke Ayotunde Akindele Network (FAAN) and FilmOne Entertainment and directed by Akindele and Tobi Makinde, the movie, with the running time of 140 minutes, made the list of the highest grossing Nigerian film of 2022 and first half of 2023.
Akindele’s ‘Battle on Buka Street’ maintained the first spot on the list and after spending four months and a week at the cinema, the movie posted a gross total of N668, 423, 056 at the box office.
Interestingly, the movie finished as the highest-grossing Nigerian film of all time to displace Akindele’s debut theatrical movie, ‘Omo Ghetto: The Saga’ which finished at N636, 129, 120.
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The movie continued its box office runs when in January, movie production and distribution platform FilmOne Entertainment announced that ‘Battle on Buka Street’ grossed over $61,000 dollars in Cinemas across the United States. FilmOne had announced that it partnered Part Two Media in the United States and got massive support from Amplify Africa to make the distribution of the movie in the United States possible.
Babatope
According to Moses Babatope of FilmOne, “with the support of Amplify Africa, the movie was the first ever of its kind in the US. Also, its controlled releases in 11 Regal Cinemas on reduced shows resulted in sold-out nationwide screening times. It is the first-ever indigenous Nollywood movie released in the US and as the first indigenous Nollywood released in the US, this film is performing beyond expectation. It is an indication of what we should look forward to this year for global releases of films from Nigeria. In a few months and years, we expect Nollywood to be a consistent feature in cinemas in the US, Europe and beyond.”
An actress that has remained relevant and that has continued to reign uproariously, Akindele’s artistic contributions have continued to retain an irreplaceable place in the artistic scheme of things.
Popular as Jenifa, an alias she earned for her delightful interpretation of the screen character Jenifa, Akindele, an Ikorodu native of Lagos State, is clearly one of the hottest actresses and producers on the turf raking in credits and award as she runs along.
Akindele has proven with her numerous offerings that she is cut out for acting and the business of motion picture production. A multi-award-winning actress, she has received all the major industry awards that is there to be received, including the Future Award, the Best of Nollywood Awards for best actress, the Afro Hollywood Award, the African Magic Viewer’s Choice Award (AMVCA) and the prestigious Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA).
In her movie pouch are such other hit flicks such as ‘Final Whistle,’ ‘Osele,’ ‘Jenifa,’ and lately ‘Omo Ghetto,’ which was declared as the highest grossing movie of 2020/2021. A voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, Akindele has continued to sign multi-million-naira endorsement and entertainment deals, and has continued to do well on and off screen.
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