Controversy trails screening of Genevieve Nnaji's Lionheart in Nigerian cinemas

The movie was recently acquired by international streaming giant, Netflix and is scheduled to start showing on the fourth of January. It was announced that the movie will be in Nigerian cinemas from today but a controversy involving Nnaji and Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) halted the plan.

A statement from the Lionheart team alleged that “powers that be” have refused to show the movie in the cinemas and even strong armed one of the cinemas who agreed to show the movie into dropping it because they (powers that be) have no stake in the movie.

CEAN has now responded to the claims through its chairman, Patrick Lee. The statement reads:

“Hi all, as cinema exhibitors we have processes that guide us when considering a movie for exhibition in the cinema.

“We expect the movie to come from a licensed distributor, we expect the movie to be given adequate run time in the cinemas before it is officially released on other platforms and also for our cinemas to be provided with adequate notice for the inclusion of the movie in an increasingly crowded calendar. It is clear from the approach taken by the Lionheart team that these processes were not adhered to and most of our members rightly refused to take the movie.

“It is also important to note that this movie had been signed up by Netflix months ago, thereby giving Genevieve’s team ample time to secure a spot on the calendar, an option they did not take until quite recently thereby ensuring the possibility of the movie not being shown by cinemas during their preferred date.

“Genevieve has starred and produced movies for cinema exhibition in the past so should be familiar with the way the industry works which is why this is a cause for concern for us in the cinema association.

“Finally it’s worth pointing out that other movies such as Chief Daddy, KOB and Merry men had all been slated from early March this year. Mo Abudu, AY and Kemi Adetiba who are industry compatriots of Genevieve’s followed the right approach by scheduling early for cinema release, it’s not fair that they may now possibly have their screen times reduced because of the rushed inclusion of Lionheart in the cinemas.

“We at the cinema association are also not pleased about the attacks in the statement on some of our members and the sweeping generalisations the statement makes and expect to seek further clarification from its author before determining if further action needs to be taken.”

On the other hand, Blue Pictures Nigeria released an announcement stating that the movie will begin showing at their cinemas from tomorrow.

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