Sportswear brand PUMA and its Nigerian partner, Persianas Retail Limited (PRL), have partnered with the team behind Black Market, the Nigerian film whose Lagos premiere attracted 51,258 qualifying viewers to set a Guinness World Records title for the largest attendance at a film screening.

The record was achieved on Saturday, September 26, at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos, where thousands gathered for the premiere of the Nollywood crime thriller.

Guinness World Records has officially recorded 51,258 people as having attended the screening from start to finish, surpassing the previous record of 43,624 set during the screening of the Filipino film Felix Manalo at the Philippine Arena in 2015.

The new record is officially credited to Rixel Studios, producer Nora Awolowo, Switch Visual Limited and event production producer Damilola Osikoya.

While reports from the event put overall attendance at about 64,000, the Guinness figure represents those who met the requirements to qualify for the record.

Black Market was produced by Awolowo and directed by Fatimah Binta Gimsay. The film was co-written by Gimsay and Abdul Tijani-Ahmed, with Rixel Studios and Switch Visual among the organisations involved in the project.

PUMA and PRL supported the film as commercial partners, extending the collaboration into fashion with a limited-edition collection tied to the production.

As part of the partnership, PUMA developed a PUMA x Black Market collection featuring designs inspired by the film and its wider campaign.

The collection includes pieces bearing phrases such as “God Is Our Plug”, “Owo, Kudi & Ego”, “Cinema Is The Currency” and “No Waiting”.

According to the companies, the collection is being distributed in Nigeria through PRL’s multibrand retail platform, The Mix.

The partnership also included clothing for members of the Black Market cast and crew during promotional appearances leading to the record screening.

For PUMA and PRL, the collaboration places the brands within a growing intersection between Nigerian film, fashion and large-scale entertainment events.

Ladun Bamgbose, Head of Marketing at PRL, said the company saw the partnership as an opportunity to participate in a major cultural event while connecting fashion with the film’s audience.

“At PRL, we believe some of the most powerful cultural moments are created when people come together,” Bamgbose said.

“PUMA supporting this moment allowed us to celebrate Nigerian creativity, connect with a new community, and give people a piece of the experience.”

The Black Market premiere had been promoted ahead of the event as an attempt to bring at least 50,000 people together at TBS to break the existing Guinness World Records benchmark.

Large crowds began arriving at the venue hours before the screening.

After the film, Guinness World Records confirmed that the qualifying attendance had surpassed the previous record.

The organisation’s official record now lists 51,258 people as having attended the film from beginning to end.

The achievement displaced the record established in the Philippines on October 4, 2015, when 43,624 people attended the premiere of Felix Manalo at the Philippine Arena.

The Lagos screening therefore exceeded the previous benchmark by 7,634 qualifying attendees.

The achievement has also drawn attention to the scale at which Nigerian film events can now be produced.

President Bola Tinubu subsequently congratulated Awolowo and Osikoya on the record, describing the achievement as an example of the potential of Nigeria’s creative industry.

The involvement of PUMA and PRL also reflects the growing use of entertainment partnerships to connect consumer brands with audiences outside conventional advertising.

Rather than limiting the relationship to event sponsorship, the companies developed merchandise linked to the identity of the film.

Such collaborations can allow a film’s cultural presence to extend beyond cinema screens into fashion and other consumer products.

For PUMA, whose business extends across performance sportswear and lifestyle fashion, the Black Market collaboration falls within its Sportstyle activities, through which the company connects sportswear with fashion and popular culture.

PRL operates PUMA retail activities in Nigeria alongside other international fashion and sportswear brands.

The company said the limited-edition Black Market collection would be available exclusively through The Mix, its multibrand retail platform.

The commercial partnership is separate from the Guinness World Records attribution.

Guinness officially credits Rixel Studios, Nora Awolowo, Switch Visual Limited and Damilola Osikoya with achieving the record.

For the wider Black Market project, however, the participation of consumer brands demonstrates how Nigerian film productions are increasingly creating partnerships around the cultural attention generated by major releases.

The record-setting premiere brought that attention to an unusual scale.

With 51,258 qualifying viewers watching the film together at TBS, Black Market has moved beyond a conventional movie premiere to become the holder of a global attendance record, while the commercial partnerships surrounding it demonstrate the wider business opportunities that can develop around major moments in Nigeria’s creative industry.