Golden Age of Nigerian cinema

Golden Age or Golden era are terms used in Nigerian film history to designate the motion picture industry of Nigeria from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. It captures the mode of visual and sound production, as well as the method of distribution employed during this period. This period began with the formal recognition of the Nigerian Film Unit as a sector in 1954, with the first film entirely copyrighted to this unit being Fincho (1957) by Sam Zebba.

After Nigeria's independence in 1960, the cinema business rapidly expanded, with new cinema houses being established. As a result, Nigerian content in theatres increased in the late 1960s into the 1970s, especially productions from Western Nigeria, owing to former theatre practitioners such as Hubert Ogunde and Moses Olaiya transitioning into the big screen. In 1972, the Indigenization Decree was issued by Yakubu Gowon, which demanded the transfer of ownership of about a total of 300 film theatres from their foreign owners to Nigerians, which resulted in more Nigerians playing active roles in the cinema and film.

The oil boom of 1973 through 1978 also contributed immensely to the spontaneous boost of the cinema culture in Nigeria, as the increased purchasing power in Nigeria made a wide range of citizens to have disposable income to spend on cinema going and on home television sets. After several moderately successful films, Papa Ajasco (1984) by Wale Adenuga became one of the first Nigerian Blockbusters, reportedly grossing about ₦61,000 (approx. 2015 ₦21.5 million) in three days. A year later, Mosebolatan (1985) by Moses Olaiya also grossed ₦107,000 (approx. 2015 ₦44.2 million) in five days. The 1980s was also the period of major boom in the television industry, with several books from notable authors being adapted into television series. Many of these television productions were later released on video and as a result, a small scale informal video trade developed, which led to the emergence of the Video boom in the 1990s.

The Golden Age began to face a major gradual decline in the late 1980s; This decline has been attributed to several factors, including the reduction in the value of Naira, lack of finance and marketing support, lack of standard film studios and production equipment, frequent Government structural adjustment programmes due to military dictatorships, as well as inexperience on the part of practitioners. It is also generally believed by stakeholders that the decline in this era was due to negligence as a result of the oil boom, which affected other sectors of the Nigerian economy as well. It has also been noted to be as a result of increase in the ownership of television sets across the country; the films produced during this era usually screened over a single weekend and are released on video the following week, it no longer made sense anymore to visit the theatres and most families preferred to wait a few days to get their hands on the VHS copies. In the early 1990s, only a few of the once vibrant cinema houses were still in operation, and all had collapsed before 1999. However, as at 2009, there's an emerging movement in the film industry, which is rapidly reviving the cinema culture of Nigerians once again.

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