Nollywood’s box office is closing 2025 on a high note, with Toyin Abraham’s Oversabi Aunty recording one of the year’s biggest opening weekends, while Funke Akindele’s Behind the Scenes crossed ₦500 million in just two weeks.
Oversabi Aunty made about ₦87.8 million in its opening weekend, with preview screenings adding roughly ₦12.7 million.
That pushed total opening earnings to around ₦100.5 million, making it the second-biggest Nollywood opening of the year so far.
The result places the film just behind the top-performing local release of 2025 and confirms that audiences are still turning out in large numbers for commercial comedies led by familiar stars.
What makes this release interesting is that it’s Abraham’s first major outing as a big-screen director. In her career, she’s moving from being a reliable lead actor to a creative mind building projects from behind the camera.
The turnout across cinemas in Nigeria and Ghana shows that the strategy paid off, helped by heavy pre-release promotion and early audience buzz.
The story itself centres on Toun, a church usher whose constant urge to correct everyone around her spirals into chaos. The humour is simple, rooted in everyday social behaviour, and supported by a wide cast that includes Mike Ezuruonye, Efe Irele, Queen Nwokoye, Jemima Osunde, Enioluwa Adeoluwa, Tana Adelana and Toyin Afolayan.
The premiere, held in Lagos on December 14, drew attention from across sectors and helped build momentum before release.
Abraham’s track record explains why distributors were confident. Her previous hit, Alakada: Bad & Boujee, closed its cinema run at ₦500.3 million after sustaining interest for 13 weeks. It crossed ₦100 million within days of release and maintained strong weekly earnings through the festive period.
That consistency has turned Abraham into one of Nollywood’s most dependable box office names, at a time when expenses leave little margin for slow starts.
If Oversabi Aunty shows strength, Behind the Scenes shows scale. Funke Akindele’s latest film crossed ₦500 million just two weeks after hitting cinemas, reaching about ₦514 million and becoming the fastest Nollywood title to hit that milestone.
According to distributors, it is also the highest-grossing Nollywood film of 2025 so far, and it led the weekend charts in both Nigeria and Ghana.
The run began with a record-breaking opening weekend. The film generated more than ₦200 million between December 12 and 14, with over 34,500 tickets sold in that period alone.
Advance screenings had already brought in ₦27.2 million, the highest ever recorded for a local title, while an earlier UK debut sold out multiple screens, pointing to strong diaspora demand even before the West African release.
Directed by Akindele alongside Tunde Olaoye, the film follows Aderonke “Ronky-Fella” Faniran, a successful real estate entrepreneur whose generosity starts to affect her personal life.
With a runtime of two hours and 24 minutes and a 12A rating, the drama targets a broad audience and is currently showing in major cities including Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and Accra.
Akindele has disclosed that the production budget exceeded ₦1 billion, a figure that underlines how high the financial stakes have become.
Together, these two releases point to a bigger change in Nollywood. Budgets are climbing, marketing is becoming more aggressive, and opening weekends now carry more weight than ever.
Currency challenges and higher production expenditures mean filmmakers cannot afford slow burns; they need fast returns.
At the same time, stronger cinema infrastructure and diaspora interest, especially in the UK, are expanding the revenue base beyond Nigeria alone.
