Lights. Camera. Profit.

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Bottom Line
The Art of Breaking
the Box Office
To be a filmmaker, one cannot overemphasize the place of passion – an
important factor in taking up any venture. However, as a business venture,
making a profit is imperative in film-making. Beyond profit-making,
making ends meet and having resources to undertake passion projects
drives the need to Break the Box office.
By Emem Isong
Africa is a hub of good stories and we are yet to even
scratch the surface of all the stories we have to offer but
many talents are discouraged because of funding and the
place of profit. Fortunately, the present Nigerian movie industry
could be quite profitable depending on a number of factors: the
kind of film you make, the reason for making the film and the
strategy you employ in marketing the film.
Before thinking about how profitable the film would be, one has
to think about how to fund the project as that would determine
the kind of film you make and that’s a major factor militating
against the plethora of African stories that needs to be told.
There are many ways to get funding for your projects but, I
believe investor funding is more profitable because, with
investors, you would likely have more to spend and may be open
to spending more on the film as against when self-funded. Selffunding
can get you so far, except, of course, you have access to
a large pool of fund. If not, I would suggest seeking investors.
Sharing the risks with like-minded investors can also help. If you
are not comfortable with an investor completely financing the
movie, you could collaborate with other investors and pull
funds together.
The reason why it is important to get proper funding is that
low-budget films hardly do as much as heavily-funded films.
Except we are talking about a short film, quality will be seriously
compromised without enough funds to get the stories told
right. Of course, the funds needed to make a good feature
film would depend on the genre and the story being told but
generally, good funding is necessary.
To make a good profit, after spending enough to make a good
film, one also needs to spend enough on marketing the film.
The difference between the success of Film A and that of B
could be the marketing strategy. The truth is that most times, a
film with a poor storyline does better than another with a richer
storyline because it enjoyed good marketing. Also, note that a
good story that is well told is one of the keys to the success of
any film.
Marketing plays a significant role in selling a film, especially
films going for theatrical releases. I believe that a considerable
percentage of the budget of the film should be channeled
towards the marketing of the film. Good marketing cannot be
stressed enough.
Using influential and established actors also help the film if the
popular actors are willing to utilize their social media platforms
in marketing the film.
In Nigeria, connections and networks play a huge part in the
profitability of a film. Make use of your network if you have one
and try to put more effort into building a good network if you
don’t have one.
I would also like to emphasize that the marketing of the film
should start even from the point of planning the movie. There
is so much power in teasing and building anticipation, take
advantage of it.
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