Toyin Abraham Revives Cinema Culture In Nigeria With “Fate Of Alakada”

Stakeholders in the cinema industry have risen to commend the box office pulling power of superstar actress, Toyin Abraham as her movie, Fate Of Alakada has been credited for bringing people back to cinemas after a long lockdown due to the Covid19 pandemic.

Cinemas all over the world have experienced low patronage as a result of COVID and many of them are shutting down their branches and the prediction from Nigerian Cinema is that the industry might not pick up until later in the year but Toyin Abraham’s movie which she co-owned with Film One has invalidated that prediction as Fate of Alakada has grossed over N30 million in the opening weekend.

This is a major feat considering the fact that even before COVID and in the history of the box office in Nigeria, only four movies have done over 20million in its opening weekend.

So for this major feat, a lot of stakeholders have commended the actress for reviving cinema culture in Nigeria post-pandemic.

Her fans, popularly known as ToyinTitans are known to turn out in large numbers for any of her projects and this turn out has been major.

The star-studded production produced by Toyin Abraham and directed by Kayode Kasum continues the hilarious journey of Yetunde (Toyin Abraham) alongside Instagram comedian, Broda Shaggi and other A-list celebrities in the likes of DMW label owner, Davido, alongside Peruzzi, Odunlade Adekola, Cohbams, BBNAIJA S04 winner, Mercy Eke and a host of others.

It is the fifth instalment in her fan-favourite ‘Alakada’ film franchise.

One of Nigeria’s filmmakers, Mimi Bartels, head of the film production of FilmOne had this to say about this development;  “The performance of “Fate Of Alakada” has taken everyone by storm, we knew it will do well but nobody predicted it will do this well especially after a terrible pandemic. The cinema industry deserves to give Toyin a pat on the back for using her influence to drag her fans to the cinema. It is a sought of a revival for the cinema culture for the post-pandemic era. Toyin is a phenomenal”.

Fast-rising Director, Samuel “Bigsam” Olatunji said “For those of us who have movies coming to cinemas later this year, we all need to pat Toyin at the back and give her Kudos.

“She has done well instead of the slow start that has been predicted for the reopening of cinemas post COVID19, we now have heavy patronage. She has helped ease the marketing many cinema houses are planning to do. Thank you Toyin for being such a blessing to the industry, we are very grateful, well done. Now you have made marketing our upcoming December movies easier so we don’t have to start from scratch again. Well done and Thank You.”

Vice President of Genesis Cinemas, Ope Ajayi had this to say about how Fate Of Alakada has kickstarted the Cinema culture post Covid19: “I think Fate Of Alakada is the best we’ve seen since we reopened particularly in the south-west region. It has done fairly decent numbers and we’ve seen people come back to cinemas. Generally, it’s been a slow start but we are seeing increased confidence as people are getting more used to it so with a few more blockbusters from Hollywood and Nollywood, things will get better and it should be back to normal by December/January, we estimate”

Famous Nollywood writer, Kehinde Joseph had this to say “it is needless to say it has been a terrible year for business and all economies in the world particularly in non-essential service providing jobs like entertainment.

“So what Fate Of Alakada has done is that it has broken the ceiling that made us imagine that the cinemas will not be revived until December by proving that people having being locked up for too long, having been broke for too long wanted something escaping. People wanted to laugh people wanted to leave their homes, they wanted to return to the community of the dark hall and the big screen watching something scene by scene that takes them to a world outside of this world that is affected by the pandemic so what that has done is that it has boosted the much-needed fact that the cinemas are fine and perfect and back to work.

“Needfully so because cinemas were locked and thousands of people who were employed were locked up but Fate Of Alakada has the core for humanity to come again together so moving forward it is hopefully going to be upward advancement progress in terms of Cinemas. It is nice that it was Fate Of Alakada that did it because it has the narrative and cinematic humph to drive that kind of push and breakthrough”

Fate Of Alakada is still showing in cinemas nationwide.