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.
