African Movies and Their Breakthrough on Streaming Platforms
Africa’s history with cinema dates to the first movie screenings in the late 19th century. The Lumière brothers (one of the first filmmakers in history) brought their famous cinematographer to the North of Africa, to cities in Egypt and Tunisia, in 1896.
Egyptian cinema continued its development in the middle of the 1900s and became the leading filmmaking industry in the African continent during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, a period considered as the golden age of the Egyptian cinema.
Nowadays, the relay has been passed on to Nigeria, which is the country with not only the largest film industry on the continent but the second largest film producer in the world behind India. In Nigeria, the fame of the film industry rose to the point that it is referred to as Nollywood.
A growing interest in Nigeria by streaming platforms
Streaming platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video have been licensing Nigerian movies since 2015. One of the first box office hits to gain its place on Netflix was the Nigerian movie Ojukokoro. This crime thriller, directed by a group of young Nigerian filmmakers, peaked at number two on the top 10 charts of Netflix Nigeria in 2021.
But even before, movies like Òlòtūré, Citation, or The Delivery Boy were popular in Netflix and the streaming giant even decided to introduce new categories in its platform: “Nollywood” and “Made in Africa.”
Other important markets in the African filmmaking industries are Kenya and South Africa, where another leading streaming platform is planning to double its investment in order to create more movies and series in these markets: MultiChoice’s platform in Showmax.
MultiChoice is the largest pay-TV company on the African continent. Their streaming platform, Showmax.com, launched in 2015 and is available in 46 African countries and in the United Kingdom and France as well. African movies and series account for up to 40% of the total audiences in Showmax, which is why the company wants to continue its efforts in collaborating with local African producers to further increase the output of content.
South Africa as the next candidate to emerge
As mentioned before, one of the targeted markets for investment by streaming platforms is South Africa. The country has a long and rich history in filmmaking. Since the times of the first internationally recognized film The Gods Must Be Crazy, by director Jamie Uys.
The movie Tsotsi won an Oscar for Best Foreign-language film in 2006 and a joint production between Hollywood producer Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) and South African director Neill Blomkamp brought to life the most acclaimed film in recent African history: District 9. The movie was nominated for Best Picture in the 2010 Academy Awards.
South Africa also became a country of reference for Hollywood blockbusters. Besides District 9, movies like Tomb Raider, The Dark Tower and Maze Runner where shot in different locations around South Africa. The Avengers: Age of Ultron by the media company Marvel features Johannesburg in one of their scenes.
Achieving success beyond audiences
The film industry in South Africa would surely like to replicate the success of one of the most lucrative movies in Hollywood history ($1.04 billion dollars in box office). To achieve this, they will have to capitalize on the commercial success of the content produced, like Marvel managed to do with The Avengers.
Commercial actions included other companies like Playtech, who managed to get a license to develop an online slots game of the movie, which is distributed to the South African market by companies such as Casino.co.za, which offers bonuses in order to attract the attention of clients, and is considered a platform that thrives for offering an excellent gambling experience thanks to its offering of services and games but also the security provided for customers deposits. This kind of strategic associations are the ones that lay the foundations of a successful commercial campaign.
Marvel also invested in a merchandising collection that includes Halloween costumes, backpacks, accessories and toys in their ShopDisney.com webpage.
And this is what the African filmmaking industry should try and replicate. The investment of Netflix and other streaming platforms should only serve as a stepping stone to consolidate the market, but never as the only source of effort behind the great content that has already proved its success, locally but also in the rest of the world.
