The Story⚡
In a week defined by major international openings and established blockbusters, a Nollywood story rooted in Igbo tradition found its audience. Ikenga: The Last Festival delivered a solid ₦33.2 million in its opening week, earning a top-five finish. On the other, Spider-Man: Brand New Day maintained its lead with another strong haul, bringing its cumulative earnings to ₦1.96 billion and placing the franchise film within touching distance of ₦2 billion in the West African market. Here is how the week actually broke down, movie by movie.
Tell Me More
The week of August 21 to 27 brought a crowded slate to Nigerian cinemas, with three brand new titles opening on the same Friday and two earlier releases still holding their ground. Below is the full top five, counting down from fifth to first.
5. Insidious: Out of the Further — ₦16.2 million (Week 1)
Insidious: Out of the Further is the sixth film in the Insidious franchise and a direct sequel to Insidious: The Red Door. It is directed by Jacob Chase, who also wrote the screenplay from a story he developed with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, and it is produced by the franchise’s regular team of Jason Blum, Oren Peli, James Wan, and Leigh Whannell. The film introduces a new central character, Gemma, played by Amelia Eve, a young mother raising her daughter in the house she grew up in. Gemma discovers she can travel into the Further, the purgatorial realm at the centre of the franchise, and that she can also pull what lives there back into the real world.
Once the demons in the Further realise what she can do, they begin treating the real world as their own playground. Lin Shaye returns as Elise Rainier, the psychic medium who has appeared in every Insidious film to date, alongside Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Sam Spruell and Laura Gordon. The film opened in the United States on August 21, 2026, through Sony Pictures Releasing, and opened in Nigerian cinemas the same day. In its first week in Nigeria, it made ₦16.2 million, which is also its cumulative total so far.
4. Ikenga: The Last Festival — ₦33.2 million (Week 1)
Ikenga: The Last Festival is directed by Darlington Obodo Kelechi and distributed in Nigerian cinemas by FilmOne Entertainment. Set in the fictional kingdom of Umuani, a community governed by tradition, honour and ancestral custom, the film follows the rise of a man who turns to forbidden power to advance himself, a choice that threatens the order the community has lived by for generations and forces its people to confront the consequences of what he has done.
The cast brings together several generations of Nollywood, led by Pete Edochie and Nkem Owoh, alongside Patience Ozokwor, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Zubby Michael, Beverly Osu, Jide Kene Achufusi, Destiny Etiko, Regina Daniels and Ugezu J. Ugezu. The film opened nationwide on August 21, 2026, and its distributor described the result as the highest-grossing opening weekend recorded for an Igbo-language film in West Africa. In its first week, Ikenga: The Last Festival made ₦33.2 million, which is also its cumulative total to date.
3. Mutiny — ₦39.2 million (Week 1)
Mutiny is an action thriller directed by Jean-François Richet and written by Lindsay Michel and J.P. Davis. Jason Statham stars as Cole Reed, a former Special Forces operative and ex-London Metropolitan Police officer now working in private security. When Reed is framed for the murder of his billionaire friend and employer, he boards a cargo ship on a one-man effort to find the real killer, and instead uncovers an international conspiracy that goes well beyond a single death. The cast also includes Annabelle Wallis, Roland Møller, Jason Wong and Arnas Fedaravičius. Statham also produced the film alongside Marc Butan. Mutiny opened in Nigerian cinemas on August 21, 2026, distributed by Lionsgate, and earned ₦39.2 million in its first week, which is also its cumulative total so far.
2. The Odyssey — ₦79.6 million (Week 6)
The Odyssey is Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, written, directed, and produced by Nolan alongside his longtime producing partner Emma Thomas. Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, on his long and perilous voyage home after the Trojan War, with Anne Hathaway as his wife Penelope, Tom Holland as his son Telemachus, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, and Zendaya as the goddess Athena. The extensive cast also includes Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron as Circe, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Mia Goth, and Samantha Morton. Shot entirely on IMAX 70mm cameras across locations including Sicily, Greece, Morocco, and Iceland, the film opened worldwide, including in Nigerian cinemas, on July 17, 2026. Now in its sixth week in Nigerian cinemas, The Odyssey added ₦79.6 million, bringing its cumulative total in the market to ₦759.5 million, still one of the strongest holds of the year.
1. Spider-Man: Brand New Day — ₦320.6 million (Week 4)
Spider-Man: Brand New Day tops the chart for a fourth straight week. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton from a script by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the film picks up four years after Spider-Man: No Way Home, with Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, living in complete anonymity after Doctor Strange’s spell erased the world’s memory of him. Fighting crime alone while watching his old friends move on without him begins to change Peter in ways he cannot fully control, a shift that becomes his only defence against a new and largely unseen threat to the people he loves.
Zendaya returns as MJ and Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds, with the cast expanded by Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, Florence Pugh and Marisa Tomei. Produced by Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad and Rachel O’Connor, the film opened worldwide, including in Nigeria, on July 31, 2026. In its fourth week in Nigerian cinemas, it earned ₦320.6 million, taking its cumulative total to ₦1.96 billion.
In Summary
All five are still showing at the cinemas. If any of these stories have caught your attention, whether it is the forbidden power at the centre of Ikenga: The Last Festival or the closing weeks of The Odyssey’s run, there is still time to catch them on the big screen.
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