By Adegboyega Adeleye
Veteran Nollywood actor and filmmaker Jide Kosoko says he is in debt after his film, Eleko: Oba Esugbayi, failed to recoup its production cost of more than N300 million at the cinemas.
Kosoko made the disclosure in a recent interview with African A-List, saying the film was financed by investors who expected returns, not money given to him as a gift.
“My film ‘Eleko: Oba Esugbayi’ that recently came out and we took to the cinemas, cost us over N300 million. Do I have 300 million? You should know that some people gave it to me and it was not that they dashed me; they invested in it and we took the film to the cinemas,” he said.
The filmmaker said the movie did not generate enough revenue to recover the investment. The small amount it earned was shared among those involved in the project.
“Different things happened and we did not earn our money back. The little that was earned was split. As I am, if you hear someone with debt dancing around their neck, it is me,” Kosoko said.
In another account of the interview, Kosoko was quoted as clarifying that the debt remark was not necessarily a reference to unpaid wages. He said the people who worked on the production had been paid, but the film did not deliver the financial returns he and the investors had hoped for.
He also acknowledged the substantial investments made by cinema operators when asked about the film’s cinema earnings and their distribution.
“I won’t deceive anyone, but truly, those who own the cinemas have huge investments,” he said.
Kosoko’s comments echo concerns raised by actor and filmmaker Ramsey Nouah, who has said that releasing a film in cinemas does not always make financial sense. Nouah said only a small fraction of cinema releases recover their production costs and turn a profit, adding that producers can still fail to recoup their investment after spending heavily on advertising and promotion.
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