The Story⚡
ROK Studios expands its horizon into the box office with its new title “Osato”
Tell Me More
December Contenders: Out of the 10 Nollywood projects slated for a Detty December release, “Osato” stands out as a title from an established Nollywood player Mary Njoku, who has been sceptical of the exhibition market.
In 2023, everyone is wondering; what has changed? Why is ROK Studios going all out and pushing a big film for the big screens?
Is this a test to see if the Nigerian theatrical revenue path is now viable or perhaps this is a move to strengthen its sinking local brand or, this is the beginning of the play for ROK titles to land on streamers who are now consistently paying top-dollar for cinema-tested titles – For now, it is still unclear
However, one thing is clear, this move is not random and what happens next after the release of “Osato” will shed more light on this irregular release strategy.
Tangent
ROK Studios founded by Mary Remmy Njoku has created over 2,500 hours of content that have now been dubbed into foreign languages and aired on cable networks in and out of the continent of Africa.
In 2019, French television company Canal+ acquired the ROK film studio from VOD company IROKOtv for an undisclosed amount. The deal meant immense funding, better resources and opportunities to tap into new markets via the studio all under the same leadership but different owners.
Key Background
Since its inception, ROK studio’s business model has flourished in scale producing low – mid-budget content for its core digital/TV audiences. It has played the volume game so well that its distribution partner, iROKO TV, quickly became a fertile ground for new acting talent, directors finding their voice and interestingly, an active actor-producer pipeline.
All of this immensely contributed to the growth of Nollywood that we have today and the rise of new talents and distribution routes all from these domestically made titles.
In Summary
With Genesis Handling Distribution, Osato produced by ROK stars Big Brother Winner Josephine “Phyna” Otabor begins its theatrical run on December 8th and we can’t wait to see its box office data from the prolific studio.
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