Good afternoon from Lagos. The FIFA World Cup is underway in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and Nigeria is watching from the couch.
No Super Eagles in the tournament, but that has not stopped Nigerian football fans from finding their own entertainment — specifically, in the comment sections under South Africa’s matches. The online trolling of Bafana Bafana supporters, fuelled by longstanding frustration over xenophobia against Nigerians in South Africa and the looming June 30 deportation deadline, has become its own parallel tournament. Nigerian Twitter is winning that one comfortably.
We will leave the football there. There is enough happening in the film industry to keep us busy. Here are your top stories.
TOP HEADLINES
1. Kamo State is Making His Cinema Debut
After 14 years in the skit business and then a big breakthrough into big screen films, Akinyoola Ayoola, Kamo State, is making his cinema debut. Titled Starlomo, the anticipated motion picture is set for September 2026, with Kayode Kasum directing. The question is whether Kamo State’s large, young, social media fanbase shows up to buy tickets. September gives the film space before December takes over the screens.
2. Uche Jombo Signs to Guguru Talent Management
Uche Jombo has signed to Guguru Media, founded by Mautin Olorunleke Tairu. Guguru’s roster already includes Uzor Arukwe, Omowunmi Dada, Adunni Ade, Najite Dede, Jude Chukwuka, Sharon Rotimi, and Kanyin Eros. At this stage of her career, this is strategic repositioning, not a career launch. And this signals a new era for Jombo, who might become the hottest face to use for box office movies.
3. King of Thieves Arrives on Netflix June 26
Femi Adebayo’s King of Thieves arrives on Netflix June 26. The blockbuster opened April 8, 2022, ran 14 weeks, and grossed ₦320.8 million — the highest-grossing indigenous language Nollywood film at the time. Moved to Prime Video in August 2022. And now in 2026, Netflix is the third platform on which the title will screen. The film that proved the big-budget Yoruba epic was commercially viable is now beginning a 3rd act in its distribution journey.
4. Folagade Banks Takes Mama Deola to the Box Office
Folagade Banks is taking his internet character, Mama Deola, to the cinema. The box office question is direct: does an audience that has watched the character for free online show up to pay for a feature? Funke Akindele built her pipeline over the years with distribution infrastructure behind it. Mama Deola Wedding Story is a cleaner, faster test of whether digital character equity converts to ticket sales.
5. Call of My Life Gets a UK Theatrical Run on June 26
Call of My Life is currently sitting at ₦554 million and is still in cinemas. The noise around its Nigerian box office run has been loud enough to cross the Atlantic, and the UK theatrical opening on June 26 will test whether that noise travels with it. But performance is only part of the question. We are also watching how many cinemas it opens in, what the showtimes look like, and whether the team has a structured rollout plan that captures the diaspora audience properly, city by city, rather than a one-weekend, one-city situation. The Nigerian numbers made the case. Now we see if the UK campaign is built to match it.
6. Chude Jideonwo Reveals Cast for Madam President
Chude Jideonwo is making his scripted debut with Madam President. Cast confirmed: Teniola Aladese, Peggy Ovire, and Jide Kosoko. Jideonwo is known as a media personality and interviewer. A scripted series is a different discipline. The title sets a high expectation. The cast says he is not treating this as a soft entry.
By The Numbers
₦1.665B — Nollywood cumulative box office, H1 2026 (Top 7 titles)
The same measure in H1 2025 came to ₦1.77 billion. The first half of 2026 produced more releases but less revenue at the top. In the current market, ₦250 million is the blockbuster threshold — and only two films crossed it in H1 2026. The rest sit in noticeably lower territory. The mid-tier, the films that should be landing between ₦100 million and ₦250 million and building the market’s commercial foundation, is thin.
There are not enough of them, and the ones that exist are not hitting hard enough.
What makes this more complicated is that the release calendar is getting crowded. Films are stacking up against each other, splitting audience attention and screen allocation before any single title can build real momentum.
The traffic jam is already forming. Q4 is where Nollywood’s biggest titles traditionally arrive, and if the same congestion hits that window, the annual total will feel it. The second half of 2026 needs spacing as much as it needs hits.
GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT
Obsession Is the Unlikely Box Office Story of 2026
A horror romance made for $750,000 is now the highest-grossing movie in Focus Features’ history.
Obsession, directed by YouTube creator Curry Barker, opened on May 15, 2026, to $17.2 million — a modest debut. Then it did something almost no film does: it went up in its second weekend, earning $23.9 million. Then $26.4 million in week three. Then $25.6 million in week four — the biggest fourth weekend in horror history, ahead of Blair Witch Project.
Current worldwide gross: $224.7 million, domestic $152.1 million.
The playbook is not entirely new to Nollywood. Omoni Oboli, Ruth Kadiri, Bolaji Ogunmola, and Biodun Steve have all made the move from digital and TV followings into cinema , dabbled in it, found some traction, but not enough to sustain a consistent theatrical presence. The infrastructure was part of the problem. Nigeria’s economy is under real pressure, and the exhibitor base , screen count, pricing, distribution reach, has not grown at the pace the content pipeline demands. The audience trust may exist. The environment to fully convert it remains the harder problem.
REACTION RADAR
What I’m Watching: Madam Dearest on Kava
Madam Dearest, written, produced, and directed by Tade Ogidan under OGD Pictures, is now streaming on Kava. The platform quietly debuted the film last week, and the move feels significant beyond the single title. Kava is building a catalogue of Nollywood classics at exactly the moment audiences risk forgetting they exist. For older viewers, it is a reconnection. For a younger generation encountering these films for the first time, it is an education in where Nigerian cinema came from.
Advert of the week: Zainab Balogun in the World Cup ad
Zainab Balogun stars in a new Visa commercial, the brand’s World Cup season campaign, and it is a reminder of how much screen presence she carries. Best known for her lead roles in Sylvia and The Governor, two of the more quietly accomplished Nigerian productions of their respective years, Balogun has been away from Nigerian film and television for some time — a break she has acknowledged publicly. The Visa campaign is the most visible she has been in that period. Whether it signals a wider return to screens remains to be seen, but something before the end of the year would not be surprising.
Closing Off
On Different Grounds and Iwe Ala: An Ojude Oba Story both opened on June 12. We are waiting on the first weekend figures and will have the full breakdown in the next edition. Separately, Call of My Life has been building all month quietly. This week could see it cross ₦600 million. Numbers drop when they land.
Catch My Interview with Award-Winning Filmmaker Akinola Davies Here.
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