August 2025 witnessed a notable collaboration between Fusion Intelligence Technologies and Café One to launch FilmHub, a community cinema initiative. Screened at the multi-city event was Nora Awolowo-produced Red Circle across Café One locations in Uyo, Enugu, Kaduna, and Owerri, to establish filmgoing culture in community spaces. While this was the first time the model was introduced in the aforementioned cities, there was a pilot with the screening of Omoni Oboli’s Wives on Strike 3 in May 2025, in Navy Town, Ojo, Lagos. The initiative’s aim to establish a thousand community cinemas within two years was one of the reasons behind the Red Circle screenings.
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Fusion Intelligence Technologies revealed that across the month, 100 tickets were sold, generating 300,000 Naira. Tickets were accessed through Reach, a ticketing system, while Convoy, Fusion Intelligence’s secure content platform, was in charge of delivery and playback. Although there had been a technical hitch that led to an incomplete viewing of the first showing, it was reported that other screenings ran seamlessly.
Despite the technical setback at the first screening, the collaboration still established Café One’s potential to be more than a co-working hub. Not only did the audience react positively to the smooth ticketing process, there was also a demand for a variety of movies to be shown across those Café One locations. They believe that by showing more than one movie, there would be a better turnout. Kolade Adewoye, the CEO of Fusion, whose software runs over 55% of cinemas in West Africa, shared in a statement to WKMUp that latest films from the cinemas and indie films will also be considered for the continued development of the community cinema.
While Fusion plans to ensure the expansion of the FilmHub Community Cinema model to more cities, there is a financial roadblock temporarily derailing them. Kolade has stated that while they have a waitlist of over twenty interested locations (after an open call earlier this year that attracted high footfall spaces like restaurants, Cafes, hotels, etc), there is the capital-raising challenge that they have to deal with to service more locations.
However, despite the financial constraints, they hope to make a return in November or December with an improved technology flow that won’t disturb the film screening. “Since community cinema is very low margin,” he explained, “we are working with efficiency to capture the value we create. Our priority is to have Convoy used in regular cinemas so that the pipeline and trust within the industry is secured. That way, content acquisition and transfer are very possible.”
Research shows that the FilmHub Community Cinema is in line with other contemporary efforts to establish similar initiatives across the continent, where distribution continues to be a hurdle. Angola has Cine Zunga, an open-air screening experience of a local short and feature film in rural areas, whose business model runs on advertising and brand activation after licensing the film for one year. Tunisia has its Gabès Cinema Fen initiative named Cinématdour, a 100-seat cinema constructed in a touring bus to offer Tunisians, in rural areas, access to films; Sunshine Cinema’s solar-powered “Sunbox” has made films accessible to remote locations in Southern African countries and there is The Western Sahara International Film Festival (FiSahara) trying to bridge the accessibility gap by making the effort to launch film screenings in refugee camps every year.
While these isolated continental projects are yet to reach the height of sustainability and smooth processes, they still show that cinema-going culture can be non-conventional and accessible to more purse sizes. The Fusion representative confirmed that they spoke to some others who have launched similar initiatives in the African space. The fact that the community-driven exhibition initiative is not limited to Nigeria establishes the importance of exchange of information and data in order to eventually perfect the system on a large and consistent scale. It is a more sustainable option than each expert starting from scratch and falling into similar pitholes that might only need slight iteration during the next venture.
The community cinema model has the potential to garner attention in the current Nollywood landscape, where there is a concerning retreat of major international streaming investment, and an alarming increase in ticket prices at traditional cinemas that has set off a significant gap in film affordability. By offering tickets at half the cost of what mainstream cinema offers, the Fusion initiative will be able to provide cinema experiences to a broader and interested audience. This could be a promising indicator for the growth of community-centered film culture in Nigeria.
Fusion Intelligence’s report clearly defines next steps for improvement and that includes strengthening technical reliability, expanding marketing through social media and partnerships, and offering diverse Nollywood titles to sustain engagement.
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