What happens when Nollywood stops asking people to watch and simply asks them to pull up? H I S T O R Y!

Fatimah Binta Gimsay’s Black Market has officially turned its Lagos premiere into a Guinness World Records moment, with 51,000 people qualifying as viewers at a single location screening at Tafawa Balewa Square on September 26. That beats the previous record of 43,624, set in the Philippines in 2015.

51,000 people watching one movie together is exactly as chaotic, ambitious and gloriously Nigerian as it sounds.

Directed and co-written by Gimsay, Black Market follows five women running a cross-border smuggling operation whose already complicated lives spiral after one woman’s daughter is kidnapped. The cast includes Lateef Adedimeji, Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Omowunmi Dada, Scarlet Gomez, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok and Uzor Arukwe.

The record was never just a marketing afterthought. Rixel Studios, FilmOne Studios, Signet Ring Studios and Switch Visuals planned the premiere around a 50,000 person target, effectively turning the audience into part of the production’s biggest spectacle. Guinness ultimately counted 51,000 qualifying viewers who stayed through the screening, despite reports of a larger overall turnout.

For Gimsay, whose theatrical directorial debut is Black Market, that is quite the flex!

Source: Culture Custodian