Top 5 Richest Nigerian's Female Actresses

Four elements contribute to the success of a movie at the box-office. They include good script, experienced director, professional publicist, and most importantly, the big name stars

Of all the four, there is one a producer should never violate at the market place and that is the ‘star’ aspect of it. There could be a bad script, inexperienced director and not too good publicity for the movie but it is almost impossible to have Return On Investment (ROI) with un-bankable stars. Wikipedia defines a bankable star to be an actor famous or charismatic enough to be “capable of guaranteeing box-office success simply by showing up in a movie”. It is common knowledge that a Will Smith will sell any movie no matter how bad as long as he has his face on the jacket. In Nigeria, some movie stars have proven again and again that they can guarantee return on investment as long as their faces adorn the poster. They are Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Omoni Oboli, Funke Akindele and Nse Ikpe-Etim. Or how else could one explain the success of box office hits like Mirror Boy, Ije, and Tango With Me all having Genevieve Nnaji starring in them? And what about Figurine and Anchor Baby which both starred Omoni Oboli as the lead actress? Mirror Boy, Tango With Me, Last Flight to Abuja and Phone Swap all had sizeable negative reviews, yet they topped the box office, made huge profit and left many Hollywood movies far behind. Here, The Entertainer takes a look at Nollywood’s five bankable actresses, their earnings and what is possibly working for them. Genevieve Nnaji Topping the list of five is Genevieve Nnaji. Love or hate her, Genny as she is fondly called, has a way with cinema audiences that make them come back again and again for her movies. So far, Genevieve’s starring in the movies has grossed over N83 million at the box office. Mirror Boy (described by the actress as her first major film and the first to put her at the box-office) made N18 million, while Ije netted N60 million turning out to be Nigeria’s highest grossing movie ever. But Genevieve had to share the money with Omotola, who also acted alongside her. If the sharing formula is 50-50, then Genevieve gets N30 million of the total gross. Genevieve’s next movie, Tango with Me went on to make N35 million. So, putting all the figures together, Genny remains at the head of the pack. What seem to be working for Genevieve are her enduring power, popularity and social media connection. The actress has been there for over a decade and is still waxing stronger. Her wine seems to taste better with age. Another plus for Genny is her popularity. Genevieve is hugely popular across Africa and most especially among the youths. Before now, she has been very active on the social media especially Twitter. She even had to put up a Facebook advert after reports emerged that some acts were ahead of her there. Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde Next on the list is Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde with box-office gross of N60 million. She made N24 million with Last Flight to Abuja, N6 million from Private Storm and her N30 million share in Ije bring her total earning to N60 million. This year alone, no actress has made as much as N24 million from a single movie; Funke Akindele would have done so with The Return of Jenifa but the movie hit the box office in 2011. Omotola, who was reported to have been paid N5 million by Tarila Thompson all in the bid to make his movie a blockbuster, has been described as the biggest box office actress of 2012. She recorded successes back to back but it remains to be seen if she can pull off the box office magic again with Amina and other movies coming in 2013. Omotola has been an A-list actress even before Genevieve got her first big break and so what has been working for her is the wise investment in her brand. Her enduring presence and unceasing contact with her fans via the social media has made her popular even in an environment where a mother of four like her is not fashionable. Funke Akindele Surprisingly, the third person on the list is Funke Akindele, a young lady who rose to fame in I Need To Know, a TV series, and went on to earn a monstrous fame with Jenifa. Funke is an unlikely candidate on this list. Now, how can one explain that she is third on a list parading heavy weights like Omoni Oboli, Nse Ikpe-Etim and Stephanie Okereke among others? So far, Funke has made over N56 million, netting over N20 million in 2012 alone. In The Return of Jenifa, Funke netted N35 million. The movie ran till February 2012. Her movie, Married but Living Single made N9.9 million while Maami made N11 million. The actress is on her way to another cinema glory with a movie, A Wish. Let’s hope she will be able to wave the magical wand again and create a box-office success. For Funke who recently got married, the plus factor for her is her huge popularity among the masses and elites. Her movie, Jenifa cuts across all social groups with the street parlance in it becoming the mode of communication in social gathering. And as an icing on the cake, Funke has moved upscale, she is now the toast of events organized by the rich and not so rich. Her box office credibility transcends the cinema as all DVDs parading her face turn into gold. Omoni Oboli Omoni Oboli, who is still largely unknown to those who don’t patronise the cinema and social media, is fourth on the list. She is a silent achiever. Before the trio of Genevieve, Omotola and Funke even dreamt of hitting the box office, Omoni Oboli already took the lead. Figurine, her first box office appearance made N13 million while her second effort, Anchor Baby made N18 million bringing her total earning to N31million. Omoni’s strength is her exclusivity and knack for quality. It is a known fact that if the project is not big and ambitious, Omoni might not do it. The disadvantage of that is, despite her box office credibility, Omoni is still unknown in areas where there is no access to cinemas. Perhaps, that is the reason she tries to make up with the red carpet presence. For now, the exclusivity is working for Omoni; perhaps her new movie, Broken and other works will introduce a new twist. One other thing that should not be forgotten is the unprecedented publicity of Anchor Baby in 2010. The film also had Omoni at the forefront of meeting and greeting of fans at the cinemas. Nse Ikpe-Etim The fifth slot belongs to Nse Ikpe-Etim. She seems to be the latest sensation in big budget movies. In Mr and Mrs, Nse was a delight, her performance was a reference point and it was a hook that kept drawing people to the cinema while the movie was there. Mr and Mrs made N6 million while another of her film, Phone Swap made N20 million, making a total of N26 million. Too early for Nse to cement her place, as she hasn’t done N15 million back-to-back but one thing the actress has made clear is that she has intention of doing that. The leading four acts should be afraid of Nse because her strength lies in her pure acting talent. Nse is born to act, deemed to be unnecessarily assertive a times, but you can’t accuse her of not knowing her lines. And she pushes her movies with virgour, moving from one cinema to the other. However, Nse should watch it as many have accused her of being too ‘self-conscious’, a term casually used for budding stars who have ‘over-hyped’ impression of themselves as this could alienate fans who make the box-office count. Rita Dominic and Stephanie Okereke Rita Dominic and Stephanie Okereke should readily make the list but they haven’t appeared at the cinemas more than once. Hopefully, Rita will break into the list with The Meeting, Lion of 76 and Street of Calabar while Stephanie already had N10 million under her belt with Through the Glass. Of course, there are exceptions to the rules. A bankable star makes easier the job of a producer; the absence of one, however, is not a ready-made doom for a movie as Avatar and Slumdog Millionaire (both global box office hits) have shown. But if one would take a risk or err, it’s better to err on the part of caution.

Nollywood Movie Titled 'ASUU STRIKE

cool comedy

2face Idibia presents N3million to Peace Award winners

Three winners emerged from the 2Face Peace Awards which held on Saturday, Sept. 21 2013 (World Peace Day) at the Nicon Luxury Hotel Abuja. They received N1 million each to use in furthering the various peace causes they have been involved in. The Awards kicked off the Million Voices for Peace campaign being run by the 2Face Idibia Reachout Foundation. The winners were selected from a pool of young people aged between 18 to 35 whose initiatives helped in promoting peace in their areas for at least 18 months. The winners were: Kyenpiya Jessica Makan-Nyabam of the CLAPAI (ChildLove And Protection Advocacy Initiative) Orphanage, Jos. CLAPAI was set up in 2006 by Kyenpiya and her husband, Emmanuel, an ex-professional footballer, to cater for children orphaned, affected or infected by HIV/AIDS. They also care for children outside the orphanage and Emmanuel uses sports to engage the older youth in the community to foster peace.

Second was the Christian Muslim Peace Movement which is based in Bauchi and Jos. They are a group of young volunteers led by Aminu Garba Sidi who do conflict mediation, peace sensitization and other activities in schools and communities. They also work in NYSC camps and are contact persons and mobilizers for other peace projects in Nigeria. The third winner was Zainab Sandah who also received an honourable mention. She is involved in mobilizing and assisting the conflict prone Rigassa community in Kaduna in their efforts to access public sector education. She assisted in setting up a VSAT with computers for a community skills centre.

2Face charged the winners to continue in their efforts to support the poor and promote peace in Nigeria. He explained that the MVP was meant to re-orientate the “mindset of Nigerians to realise the senselessness in many of the conflicts and killings going on and let them know that peace is the only condition for progress. “Most times when they tell you the reason for some of the conflicts, you will be very surprised and disappointed. "As award winners, you are now peace ambassadors. People will be moreinterested in what you do. You have to continue to maintain the high standards you have set,” he said. Present at the event were the president of the Kudirat Initiative forDemocracy (KIND), Hafsat Abiola-Costello, who gave a speech urging the rich to support d poor more; the Director of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) who represented by David Manya Dogo and Prof Braide, DG IPRC and the representative of the First Lady's Peace Mission Mrs Betty Bassey. The 2Face Peace Awards was supported by APURIMAC, Action AID, UNDP and KIND

'You’re a very bad man' how 4yr old confronted Kenyan mall gunman who gave him chocolate & begged for forgiveness

A four-year-old British boy caught up in the Kenya mall massacre showed astonishing bravery by confronting a marauding gunman who ended up begging for his forgiveness, UK Daily Mail reports. Elliot Prior, from Windsor, Berkshire, told one of the terrorists that he was a 'very bad man' as he protected his mother, Amber, who had been shot in the leg, and six-year-old sister Amelie. Incredibly, the attacker took pity on the family and bizarrely handed the children Mars bars before telling them: 'Please forgive me, we are not monsters.' His story emerged as sporadic gunfire continued to ring out from inside the mall early today as Kenyan security forces battled Al Qaeda-linked terrorists into a fourth day. Despite Kenyan police assurances that they had taken control of the building, a security expert with contacts inside the mall said at least 10 hostages were still being held by a band of attackers, possibly as many as 13. (Picture above) 4 year old Elliot and his sister Amelie hold Mars bars next to a dead body outside the Westgate mall after being given the chocolate by a gunman who spared their lives. Continue..

Kenya's foreign minister Amina Mohamed said 'two or three' Americans and one British woman were among those who attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. His mother, Amber, told of her family’s terrifying escape from Al Shabaab terrorists who butchered 62 people in the Nairobi shopping centre. The film producer had been queuing to buy milk in Nairobi's Westgate Shopping Centre when the militants struck. She hid under a cold meat counter in the Nakumatt supermarket for an hour-and-a-half with her children beneath her before terrorists finally found them and shot her in the thigh.

Elliot's uncle, Alex Coutts, told The Sun: 'They had a lucky escape. The terrorists said if any of the kids were alive in the supermarket they could leave. 'Amber made the decision to stand up and say "yes".' 'Then Elliot started arguing with them and called them bad men. He was very brave.' After discovering the advertising producer was of French origin, the men began to plead with her and claimed that the Muslim faith ‘was not a bad one’.‘He told me I had to change my religion to Islam and said “do you forgive us? Do you forgive us?’, the mother told The Independent. ‘Naturally, I was going to say whatever they wanted and they let us go’. Bizarrely, the terrorists handed the children Mars bars before they fled with two other children, including a 12-year-old boy who had at first refused to leave his dead mother. The fate of 20 others who had taken refuge under the meat counter is unknown. The family’s escape is particularly astonishing in light of the indiscriminate slaughter of men, women and children throughout the mall after Al Shabaab launched their assault on Saturday.

Genevieve Nnaji:spot the difference

In Pictures: MBGN 2013 Winner, Anna Ebiere In Indonesia For Miss World Pageant

2face Collaborates With US Rapper Chingy and May7ven on the Afrobeats Remix Of “Falling”

It’s going with the current trend and international exposure. US artists are taking more notice of the African music scene and the most recent is US rap star Chingy who on saturday announced a collaboration with the legend 2Face and UK afrobeats artist May7ven on twitter. Although the song has not officially been released yet in Africa, you can listen to it on Chingy’s website www.chingyjackpot.com.