Funke Akindele’s new movie opens with over ₦200m at box office

Nollywood actress and filmmaker, Funke Akindele, has recorded a strong box office outing with her latest film, Behind The Scenes, which has crossed ₦200 million in its opening weekend.

The film, whose storyline centres on black tax, features Scarlet Gomez in the lead role, alongside Iyabo Ojo, Funke Akindele, Destiny Etiko, Tobi Bakre, Uche Montana,Uzor Arukwe, Ini Dima-Okojie, Adebowale ‘Mr Macaroni’, Ibrahim Chatta, Kamo State, and reality TV stars Handi and Wanni Danbaki, among others.

According to the film’s distributor, FilmOne Entertainment on Monday, Behind The Scenes recorded the biggest opening weekend of 2025, becoming the first Nollywood film this year to hit the ₦200 million mark on its opening weekend.

The movie was also described as a five-time box office opening weekend record holder and the biggest weekend admissions of 2025.

The film had its advanced screening on December 10 and 11, before officially opening in cinemas nationwide on December 12.

Announcing the milestone in an Instagram post, FilmOne wrote, “We call her the Queen of Box Office for a reason! Thank you, Nigeria, for showing up, filling cinemas, and spreading the word. Behind The Scenes crossed ₦200M in just one weekend, broke five opening-weekend records, and became the biggest opening of 2025! It’s your love that made this possible.”

The distributor added that the film is still showing in cinemas across the country.

The latest achievement further cements Akindele’s dominance at the box office. Her previous film, Everybody Loves Jenifa, became Nollywood’s biggest opening weekend of all time, surpassing her earlier record set by A Tribe Called Judah, which opened with ₦113 million.

Everybody Loves Jenifa recorded an admission count of 38,353, including advance screenings, and went on to become the highest-grossing Nollywood film ever, earning over ₦1.8 billion in Nigeria, alongside additional revenue from international markets.

The film crossed the ₦1 billion mark in late December 2024 and continued its cinema run into early 2025, drawing massive audience turnout and setting new box office benchmarks for West African cinema.