THEMATIC RELEVANCE AND AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF NOLLYWOOD MOVIES IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

It is generally known that movies have gone beyond being regarded merely as expressive entertainment medium yet their other properties have not been fully exploited. They unite families, friends, communities and countries, assisting and encroaching the youths. Cultures and beliefs are learnt from films just as they also serve as channels for social mobilization and for showcasing the siocio-political landscape of a nation. Nollywood is believed to be the second largest film tradition in the world with an economic worth of about N853.9billion. The industry has produced numerous movies, exploring themes from real life situations from the country’s diverse cultures. However, most scholars and critics of the industry agree that the quantity has not matched quality as many of the movies have identical themes. This prompted this researcher to find out the perception of Nollywood movie audience regarding recurring themes, and whether this is a unique problem, or it is applicable to other world movie cultures. Premised on Perception and Uses and gratification theories, the study used a mixed research design to generate data. Samples were taken to represent the study within Benin City. Two hundred (200) copies of Questionnaire were distributed and interviews were conducted on movie producer/director and scriptwriter in the Nollywood movie industry. Data collected revealed that Nollywood movies bring a lot of issues into consideration while determining movie themes but the movies lack professionalism due to the absence of research base on the speed at which they try to put stories into finished state thereby recycling stories that made great waves using poor script narratives.