Nollywood actress and filmmaker Funke Akindele has achieved a major box office milestone with her latest movie, Behind The Scenes, which raked in over ₦200 million during its first weekend in cinemas.
The film, which explores the pressures of black tax, stars Scarlet Gomez and features a star-studded cast including Iyabo Ojo, Destiny Etiko, Tobi Bakre, Uche Montana, Uzor Arukwe, Ini Dima-Okojie, Adebowale ‘Mr Macaroni’, Ibrahim Chatta, Kamo State, and reality TV personalities Handi and Wanni Danbaki.
According to FilmOne Entertainment, the movie achieved the biggest opening weekend of 2025, becoming the first Nollywood film this year to reach the ₦200 million milestone. It also broke five opening-weekend records and drew the largest audience turnout for a weekend so far this year.
The film had special advance screenings on December 10 and 11 before its nationwide release on December 12.
Celebrating the achievement on Instagram, 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 movie continues to run in cinemas across Nigeria.
This milestone reinforces Akindele’s consistent box office success. Her previous hit, Everybody Loves Jenifa, had set the record for Nollywood’s biggest opening weekend, surpassing her earlier film A Tribe Called Judah, which had opened with ₦113 million.
Everybody Loves Jenifa went on to become the highest-grossing Nollywood movie, earning over ₦1.8 billion domestically and additional revenue internationally. The film crossed the ₦1 billion mark in late December 2024 and continued drawing large audiences into early 2025, cementing Akindele’s reputation as Nollywood’s box office queen.
