Akinola Davies Jr.’s My Father’s Shadow has crossed more than 1.1 million dollars in publicly tracked worldwide theatrical earnings.
Figures published by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers show that the Cannes-premiered film had grossed over one million dollars in reported ticket sales by July 28, 2026. The development was first identified in a box office report by African Film Press.
The total shows only territories covered by the two international tracking platforms and does not include every market where the film has screened. In particular, Nigerian theatrical receipts are absent from both databases.
According to FilmOne’s 2025 Nigeria Box Office Yearbook, which compiles data from Comscore, the film generated 25.7 million naira during its first Nigerian cinema run between September 19 and December 31, 2025. My Father’s Shadow also returned to cinemas for a limited rerelease in June 2026, after its AMVCA sweep and to commemorate the country’s Democracy Day.
Davies Jr. ‘s debut feature premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, making history as the first Nigerian title to be in the official Cannes lineup. The film stars Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Godwin Chimerie Egbo and Chibuike Marvellous Egbo, and centres on two brothers moving through Lagos against the backdrop of the turmoil that followed the 1993 presidential election.
The Nigeria–UK co-production was produced by Rachel Dargavel and Funmbi Ogunbanwo through Element Pictures, Fatherland Productions and Crybaby Films, with BBC Film and the BFI also backing the project.
The film’s biggest documented overseas market is France, where it was released as Un jour avec mon père (a familiar localization move attributed to marketing strategy) on 25 March 2026. French box office service CBO Box Office reported 30,387 admissions from 96 locations in its opening week, while Box Office Mojo currently attributes $515,224 of the film’s total earnings to the French market.
The United Kingdom and Ireland delivered the second-largest contribution. Released there in early February 2026, the film opened with £58,452, topping that week’s limited-release chart. Box Office Mojo lists $438,645 in cumulative UK receipts.
In AFP’s comparison with other recent African festival titles that received theatrical releases outside their primary production countries, My Father’s Shadow stands out as one of the strongest performers from sub-Saharan Africa. Its tracked earnings place it ahead of widely discussed post-pandemic African releases, including Dahomey, Black Tea and Goodbye Julia.
The result is significant because it comes at a time when theatrical distribution for African independent films has become quite difficult. Many festival-premiered titles now move quickly to streaming platforms, while cinema releases are often limited in scale and duration.
Although publicly available databases cannot provide a complete picture of every territory in which the film has earned revenue, the available numbers indicate that My Father’s Shadow has achieved a rare level of international theatrical traction for a first feature directed by a Nigerian filmmaker and set in a sub-Saharan African context.
Following its acquisition by MUBI in February 2025 before its Cannes premiere, My Father’s Shadow is available to stream on the platform in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Turkey, UK and the U.S.
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