Funke Akindele has set a new, unprecedented benchmark for African cinema. Her latest film, ‘Behind The Scenes,’ has officially surpassed the N2 billion mark at the box office, grossing N2,103,039,706 since its December release.
Distributor FilmOne Entertainment celebrated the historic achievement, declaring the film the first Nollywood production in Africa to reach this milestone.
The company’s announcement also cemented Akindele’s singular dominance: she is now the first filmmaker to rank number one at the box office in Africa for three consecutive years and is West Africa’s highest-grossing filmmaker, writer, director, and producer of all time.
The film’s record-breaking run included earning N512 million in its first 12 days—the fastest any Nollywood film has crossed the N500 million threshold—before steadily climbing to its current total.
This achievement cements Akindele as the only director to have three separate films each cross the N1 billion mark, a streak that began with 2023’s ‘Battle On Buka Street’ (N640 million), continued with 2024’s ‘A Tribe Called Judah’ (the first to hit N1 billion), and was followed by ‘Everybody Loves Jenifa’ (N1.88 billion).
Reacting to the news, Akindele expressed her gratitude to God and her fans, whom she described as family. FilmOne credited the film’s success to “sustained audience support and belief in local storytelling,” calling the performance “a movement.”
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
