BREAKING: Actress Funke Akindele’s Behind The Scenes becomes West Africa’s highest-grossing film of all time
Funke Akindele’s Behind The Scenes has officially overtaken Everybody Loves Jenifa to become West Africa’s highest-grossing film of all time, marking a new milestone for Nollywood’s box office.
This is according to box office performance data from cinema distributors and industry trackers across the region.
The development shows the growing commercial power of locally produced films and Funke Akindele’s continued dominance as Nollywood’s most bankable filmmaker.
The film’s record-breaking run comes after weeks of sustained audience turnout, strong word-of-mouth, and consistently high weekly grosses, positioning it ahead of Akindele’s previous blockbuster, Everybody Loves Jenifa, which ended its theatrical run at about N1.8 billion.
What the data is saying
Available data shows that Behind The Scenes has already recorded a cumulative box office gross of approximately N1.77 billion as of the last weekend in cinemas.
The movie also posted a historic N129.5 million single-day gross on Boxing Day, one of the highest ever recorded in Nollywood history.
In terms of audience turnout, the film leads West Africa’s 2025 admissions ranking with 223,768 admissions between January 1 and December 31, 2025 (not calculating spillover numbers in 2026 yet. This places it well ahead of Everybody Loves Jenifa, which recorded 148,863 admissions within the same period. The numbers reflect not just higher ticket prices, but a significantly larger cinema-going audience.
More context from the box office
Beyond becoming the region’s highest-grossing film, Behind The Scenes is also the highest-grossing movie of 2025 so far. It represents Funke Akindele’s third N1 billion film, an achievement that remains unprecedented in Nollywood.
The film features an expansive, star-studded cast including BBNaija stars Wanni x Handi, Uche Montana, Scarlet Gomez, Tobi Bakre, Uzor Arukwe, Vee, Mr Macaroni, Ini Dima-Okojie, Iyabo Ojo, Ibrahim Chatta, Dele Odule, Destiny Etiko, Kamo, Afeez Oyetoro, and Ejiro Onojafe. Its broad appeal across demographics helped sustain momentum weeks after release.
The success of Behind The Scenes reinforces Nollywood’s transition into a data-driven, big-budget industry capable of delivering consistent theatrical returns. Funke Akindele previously disclosed that the film’s production budget was close to N1 billion, highlighting the growing scale and financial risk of modern Nigerian filmmaking.
What you should know
Nairametrics has consistently reported on the rise of billion-naira Nollywood films and Funke Akindele’s outsized influence on the box office. The actress-producer had earlier warned fans against sharing pirated cinema recordings, emphasizing how piracy directly threatens film profitability.
- Behind The Scenes had shown strong box office momentum from its opening weekend. Funke Akindele’s latest film recorded over N200 million in box office revenue during its first weekend in cinemas, making it the highest-grossing opening weekend of 2025, according to figures released by FilmOne Entertainment, the film’s West African distributor.
- The movie, which debuted in cinemas on December 12, attracted 34,548 admissions between December 12 and 14, setting multiple opening-weekend benchmarks in the Nigerian film market. Within just two weeks of release, the title crossed the N500 million mark at the Nigerian box office.
Its momentum continued across the region, as Behind The Scenes surged past N1.1 billion at the West African box office just 17 days after release, becoming the fastest film in the region’s history to cross the billion-naira threshold.
