Femi Branch berates cinema operators over alleged nepotism

By Tosin Brown

Popular actor Femi Branch has called out some cinema owners in Nigeria, accusing them of promoting certain movies over others.

In a recent Instagram post, the film star alleged that some cinema staff were frustrating some titles to better the lots of their favourites.

Branch also claimed that cinemas remove media cards of certain movies from their counters and promote the ones they favour instead.

“I do not see anybody talking about it in the industry. I know people know what is going on. I am talking about cinemas promoting one movie above the other. It is so bad that some cinema staff wear T-shirts for one film. They remove the media cards of some movies from their counters and put others out there,” he began.

“In some cinemas, they tell people, ‘This is the best film to watch’. In some cinemas, they change somebody else’s time for another person. As you know, you are supposed to screen your movie at a particular time, but you go there, and they are now telling you to watch another better film.

“It is not the business of the cinema to tell what film to watch or not. We have been having a lot of problems at the cinemas recently. Especially, this December. We have heard of different fights at different cinemas. This industry is constantly under one bondage or the other.

“We are divided already. Cinemas want to add to it. Many producers are groaning now that the money they invested is not returning. Some of us who are working on projects to go out into cinemas are afraid because we do not know what’s going on.

“When they give you screen time and see that another film has become popular, they will then give your screen time to other people. Some will even time that is not good. You are not helping our industry, you are not helping the economy, and you are not assisting actors, too. Cinemas are supposed to be neutral.”