It is a new year and a new box-office milestone for Nollywood’s reigning box-office queen, Funke Akindele.
As widely anticipated, Akindele has become the first filmmaker in Nigerian cinema history to cross the 2 billion naira mark with a single title. Her latest release, Behind The Scenes (after 178 million naira in opening weekend), has now grossed 2.1 billion naira from 354,754 tickets sold after five weeks in cinemas, according to reported figures.
Behind The Scenes opened nationwide on December 12, 2025. The film, shining Akindele’s familiar lens and style on black tax culture, stars Scarlet Gomez, Tobi Bakre, Uzor Arukwe, Ini Dima-Okojie, Uche Montana and Akindele herself. It is distributed by FilmOne and co-directed by Tunde Olaoye and Akindele for the Funke Ayotunde Akindele Network, from a script by Akindele, Uche Mordi and Collins Okoh.
With this milestone, Akindele now occupies five of the top ten highest-grossing Nollywood films of all time, all released since 2020. Three of those titles — Behind The Scenes, Everybody Loves Jenifa and A Tribe Called Judah — have each crossed the 1 billion naira mark.
Also making a mark across this holiday season is Toyin Abraham. Her latest film, Oversabi Aunty, which opened on December 19, has earned over 800 million naira so far and is aiming to cross 1 billion naira, which would mark Abraham’s first entry into the billion-naira club. The film currently sits in fourth place on the all-time Nollywood box-office chart.
All eyes are now on where Behind The Scenes and Oversabi Aunty will finally land as both films continue their theatrical runs in the coming weeks.
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