Barely two weeks after grossing over N135 million in cinemas across Nigeria and West Africa, Funke Akindele’s new film, ‘Battle on Buka Street’ has made a new move.
The film has again gone ahead to gross over N27 million ($61,000) over the four-day New Year weekend in the United States of America.
FilmOne Entertainment (Nigeria) and Part Two Media (USA), with the support of Amplify Africa, released ‘Battle on Buka Street’ on December 30 in only 11 Regal Cinemas on reduced shows, but resulted in sell-outs across the country.
According to reports, it’s the first-ever indigenous Nollywood release in the United States. Due to its performance on the first weekend, Regal has added another 11 locations in the second week due to strong demand and sell-out shows.
Craig Shurn, of Part Two Media, said, “we always knew that ‘Battle on Buka Street’ had the potential to do well in the US, especially after its blockbuster results and status in Nigeria, but we never expected these sorts of figures for the first Nollywood release here. The US African diaspora has been underserved and starved of true African content, especially theatrically, for the longest time, and it is an honor to have brought ‘Battle on Buka Street’ to them eventually. It’s a great start, and it’s exciting what the future holds.”
Moses Babatope and Kene Okwuosa, from FilmOne Entertainment, added that “with the strong showing of ‘Battle on Buka Street,’ Nigerian film has come full circle, and is gaining more attention from international audiences. As the first indigenous Nollywood release in the US, this film is performing beyond expectation and is an indication of what we should look forward to this year for global releases of films from Nigeria.”