With the way things are going now in the Yoruba movie industry, it seems that the era of home video will soon come to an end as the Association of the Yoruba Movie Marketers have hit hard time. ![download]()
A few years ago, precisely in August 2014, the Yoruba Video Film Producers/Marketers Association of Nigeria (YOVIFPMAN) relocated the film market from Idumota to the International Standard market of The Arena Shopping Complex at Oshodi in Lagos. Since the inception of Nollywood,Idumota has been the number one movie market in Nigeria, and the main motive behind the decision to move to Oshodi was to enable them battle the dreadful and deadly piracy which seems to be the biggest threat not just to Yoruba movie industry alone but Nigeria entertainment world as a whole.
A few years ago, precisely in August 2014, the Yoruba Video Film Producers/Marketers Association of Nigeria (YOVIFPMAN) relocated the film market from Idumota to the International Standard market of The Arena Shopping Complex at Oshodi in Lagos. Since the inception of Nollywood,Idumota has been the number one movie market in Nigeria, and the main motive behind the decision to move to Oshodi was to enable them battle the dreadful and deadly piracy which seems to be the biggest threat not just to Yoruba movie industry alone but Nigeria entertainment world as a whole.We gathered that the marketers are no longer making sales after release of movies, and away from that, the unsold ones popularly known as portal which is sold for #100 weeks after its release are no longer selling as well and the reason behind it was as a result of piracy.
Immediately the movies are released on Monday morning which will be sold for #200 inside Arena, the pirated copies will also come out in the afternoon where 18 newly released movies will be packed in one CD for just #100. Psychologically, it is cheaper and people rather will go for it than to buy a movie for #200. This, we learnt has gradually affected the pace and regularity of sales from the side of the marketers which in turn has affected the usual 2-week pace of movie release.
Information further revealed that the marketers are running at loss at every release and they can no longer pay the brains behind the production such as Printers who made the CD jacket and posters, Film Editors and of course the movie producers which influenced the act of inviting Soldiers and Policemen to arrest some of the marketers before the producers can get part of their payment.
The replicators, we learnt have increased their payment as the CD which was normally N20 now goes between 27 and #30 per copy, and the jacket which was #7 has risen to #13 per copy including posters. Some of these marketers are already lamenting especially after release but it is rather unfortunate that most of them have no alternative. This, has ultimately reduce the numbers of marketers releasing movies to less than 15 rather 22 fortnightly. We also scooped that most marketers are now forcefully going on leave while others are taking into music marketing. Some of these marketers, we learnt have been rejecting movies from producers, and in actual sense, if marketers are now rejecting movies from Producers, that means the era of home videos in the Yoruba movie industry will become extinct.