Dear You.
If Funke Akindele leaves this December date for these lots crying and goes to take February 14, Valentine’s Day market, I bet you she will still make the kill. Not because of magic. Not because of favour. But because systems beat sentiments every single time.
Funke Akindele made this December slot worth it. Funke Akindele taught others how to market and how to do great promos. Yet, her marketing budget still remains unmatched by many of those now crying sabotage and foul play. You don’t out-complain a system you refused to build. You don’t fight capacity with emotions.
Niyi Akinmolayan has a good film out there, but filmmaking excellence alone has never guaranteed box office dominance. Cinema is not a film festival; it is a marketplace. Toyin Abraham isn’t new to this competition either. In fact, this competition has been a blessing to her. She is the Ronaldo to the Messi (Funke Akindele) of this game. Different styles. Same hunger. One benefits from the other’s gravity.
When people troop to cinemas to watch Funke Akindele’s December project, the movie they are most likely to watch after is Toyin’s. When Funke sells out, or when timing doesn’t favour them, they pick the alternative—Toyin’s. In practical terms, Funke Akindele’s marketing becomes free traffic for others. That is how ecosystems work. The biggest magnet pulls others into orbit.
Now, let’s interrogate this marketing everyone whispers about. Marketing is not just billboards and skits; it is timing, consistency, partnerships, narrative control, audience psychology, and data-backed distribution. It is showing up months before release, not weeks. It is rehearsed virality, not accidental noise. It is owning conversations before critics arrive.
Let’s also be honest about the cinemas. Cinemas are not charities; they are businesses with staff salaries, rent, power costs, loans, and investor expectations. Will their structure not favour the movie pulling the biggest numbers per screen per hour? Will any rational business sacrifice turnover on the altar of industry pity? Capitalism does not reward fairness; it rewards performance.
This is where many creatives get uncomfortable: emotions don’t scale, systems do. The Nigerian film industry loves to debate fairness but hates to discuss preparedness. We celebrate hustle but avoid hard conversations about capital, logistics, distribution leverage, and long-term audience cultivation. Everyone wants December until December demands receipts.
Globally, this is not new. Hollywood has tentpoles. Bollywood has box-office behemoths. Korean cinema has franchise gravity. Smaller films don’t survive by fighting giants; they survive by counter-programming, different dates, different audiences, different promises. The market always makes room for strategy, never for entitlement.
So the real question is not, “Why Funke Akindele again?” The real question is, “What did Funke Akindele understand early that others are still resisting?” The answer is unromantic: discipline, reinvestment, team depth, data, patience, and ruthless clarity about what the audience wants.
This is not a moral argument. It is a commercial one. Cinema slots are earned, not shared. Audiences vote with wallets, not tweets. And until the industry accepts that scale answers only to structure, not tears, we will keep recycling outrage instead of building empires.
Business is not wicked. It is simply honest. Funke pays for first class tickets and flys her actors to an all expense paid trips for promo sakes and premier. Let’s show receipts and back it up with workings.
Your Nigeria Cinemas Spotter
Ediale Kingsley
Entertainment Journalists/Film Maker/Publicist
#ForTheCulture
PS: When Funke Akindele puts all those money down for marketing and production. She is not compelled to think fairness as a business woman. What she should be thinking is “crush your competitors”.
