Nollywood crime thriller Black Market has broken the Guinness World Record for the largest audience gathered for a film screening, after 51,000 qualifying viewers watched the movie at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. The historic screening took place on Saturday, September 26, surpassing the organisers’ target of 50,000 viewers and the previous record of 43,624 people set in 2015 during a screening of the Filipino film Felix Manalo at the Philippine Arena. Guinness World Records confirmed 51,000 as the qualifying attendance, based on viewers who remained at the venue from the beginning of the film until the end, ChannelsTv reported.
The achievement turned the premiere of Black Market into one of the largest public cinema events in Nigeria, with thousands of movie lovers arriving at TBS from the afternoon. Although Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat reportedly put the total turnout at about 64,000, the Guinness qualifying figure remained 51,000. The event featured a red carpet, music, food and games ahead of the main screening, while FilmOne Entertainment, the film’s distributor, described the achievement as a world record for the largest audience gathering ever for a movie screening.
Directed by Fatimah Binta Gimsay and co written by Gimsay and Abdul Tijani Ahmed, Black Market follows five women caught in a cross border smuggling operation whose lives change after the daughter of one of them is kidnapped. The film stars Linda Ejiofor Suleiman, Lateef Adedimeji, Omowunmi Dada, Scarlet Gomez, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok, Ibrahim Yekini and Uzor Arukwe, among others. Produced by Rixel Studios, Signet Ring Studios and FilmOne Studios, the record setting premiere demonstrates the scale of audience mobilisation possible within Nigeria’s film industry, while further highlighting the commercial and cultural reach of Nollywood’s creative economy.
