Pakurumo Entertainment: Check-out top 5 Most bankable Richest Nollywood Ac...

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Saturday, 21 September 2013
Posted By Joba Bamiro at 14:48
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Check-out top 5 Most bankable
Richest Nollywood Actress!!!
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Four elements contribute to the success of a
movie at the box-office. They include good script,
experienced director, professional publicist, and
most importantly, the big name stars.
Of all the four, there is one a producer should
never violate at the market place and that is the
‘star’ aspect of it. There could be a bad script,
inexperienced director and not too good publicity
for the movie but it is almost impossible to have
Return On Investment (ROI) with un-bankable
stars.
Wikipedia defines a bankable star to be an actor
famous or charismatic enough to be “capable of
guaranteeing box-office success simply by
showing up in a movie”. It is common knowledge
that a Will Smith will sell any movie no matter
how bad as long as he has his face on the jacket.
In Nigeria, some movie stars have proven again
and again that they can guarantee return on
investment as long as their faces adorn the
poster. They are Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-
Ekeinde, Omoni Oboli, Funke Akindele and Nse
Ikpe-Etim. Or how else could one explain the
success of box office hits like Mirror Boy, Ije, and
Tango With Me all having Genevieve Nnaji starring
in them? And what about Figurine and Anchor
Baby which both starred Omoni Oboli as the lead
actress?
Mirror Boy, Tango With Me, Last Flight to Abuja
and Phone Swap all had sizeable negative
reviews, yet they topped the box office, made
huge profit and left many Hollywood movies far
behind. Here, The Entertainer takes a look at
Nollywood’s five bankable actresses, their
earnings and what is possibly working for them.
Genevieve Nnaji
Topping the list of five is Genevieve Nnaji. Love or
hate her, Genny as she is fondly called, has a way
with cinema audiences that make them come
back again and again for her movies.
So far, Genevieve’s starring in the movies has
grossed over N83 million at the box office. Mirror
Boy (described by the actress as her first major
film and the first to put her at the box-office)
made N18 million, while Ije netted N60 million
turning out to be Nigeria’s highest grossing movie
ever. But Genevieve had to share the money with
Omotola, who also acted alongside her. If the
sharing formula is 50-50, then Genevieve gets
N30 million of the total gross.
Genevieve’s next movie, Tango with Me went on
to make N35 million. So, putting all the figures
together, Genny remains at the head of the pack.
What seem to be working for Genevieve are her
enduring power, popularity and social media
connection. The actress has been there for over a
decade and is still waxing stronger. Her wine
seems to taste better with age.
Another plus for Genny is her popularity.
Genevieve is hugely popular across Africa and
most especially among the youths. Before now,
she has been very active on the social media
especially Twitter. She even had to put up a
Facebook advert after reports emerged that some
acts were ahead of her there.
Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde
Next on the list is Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde with
box-office gross of N60 million. She made N24
million with Last Flight to Abuja, N6 million from
Private Storm and her N30 million share in Ije
bring her total earning to N60 million.
This year alone, no actress has made as much as
N24 million from a single movie; Funke Akindele
would have done so with The Return of Jenifa but
the movie hit the box office in 2011.
Omotola, who was reported to have been paid N5
million by Tarila Thompson all in the bid to make
his movie a blockbuster, has been described as
the biggest box office actress of 2012. She
recorded successes back to back but it remains
to be seen if she can pull off the box office magic
again with Amina and other movies coming in
2013.
Omotola has been an A-list actress even before
Genevieve got her first big break and so what has
been working for her is the wise investment in her
brand. Her enduring presence and unceasing
contact with her fans via the social media has
made her popular even in an environment where
a mother of four like her is not fashionable.
Funke Akindele
Surprisingly, the third person on the list is Funke
Akindele, a young lady who rose to fame in I Need
To Know, a TV series, and went on to earn a
monstrous fame with Jenifa.
Funke is an unlikely candidate on this list. Now,
how can one explain that she is third on a list
parading heavy weights like Omoni Oboli, Nse
Ikpe-Etim and Stephanie Okereke among others?
So far, Funke has made over N56 million, netting
over N20 million in 2012 alone. In The Return of
Jenifa, Funke netted N35 million. The movie ran
till February 2012. Her movie, Married but Living
Single made N9.9 million while Maami made N11
million. The actress is on her way to another
cinema glory with a movie, A Wish. Let’s hope she
will be able to wave the magical wand again and
create a box-office success.
For Funke who recently got married, the plus
factor for her is her huge popularity among the
masses and elites. Her movie, Jenifa cuts across
all social groups with the street parlance in it
becoming the mode of communication in social
gathering. And as an icing on the cake, Funke
has moved upscale, she is now the toast of events
organized by the rich and not so rich. Her box
office credibility transcends the cinema as all
DVDs parading her face turn into gold.
Omoni Oboli
Omoni Oboli, who is still largely unknown to those
who don’t patronise the cinema and social media,
is fourth on the list. She is a silent achiever.
Before the trio of Genevieve, Omotola and Funke
even dreamt of hitting the box office, Omoni Oboli
already took the lead. Figurine, her first box office
appearance made N13 million while her second
effort, Anchor Baby made N18 million bringing
her total earning to N31million.
Omoni’s strength is her exclusivity and knack for
quality. It is a known fact that if the project is not
big and ambitious, Omoni might not do it. The
disadvantage of that is, despite her box office
credibility, Omoni is still unknown in areas where
there is no access to cinemas. Perhaps, that is the
reason she tries to make up with the red carpet
presence.
For now, the exclusivity is working for Omoni;
perhaps her new movie, Broken and other works
will introduce a new twist. One other thing that
should not be forgotten is the unprecedented
publicity of Anchor Baby in 2010. The film also
had Omoni at the forefront of meeting and
greeting of fans at the cinemas.
Rita Dominic and Stephanie Okereke
Rita Dominic and Stephanie Okereke should
readily make the list but they haven’t appeared
at the cinemas more than once. Hopefully, Rita
will break into the list with The Meeting, Lion of
76 and Street of Calabar while Stephanie already
had N10 million under her belt with Through the
Glass.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rules. A
bankable star makes easier the job of a producer;
the absence of one, however, is not a ready-made
doom for a movie as Avatar and Slumdog
Millionaire (both global box office hits) have
shown. But if one would take a risk or err, it’s
better to err on the part of caution.