Veteran Nollywood actor and filmmaker, Jide Kosoko, has disclosed that he is in debt after his film, Eleko: Oba Esugbayi, failed to recoup its production cost of over N300 million at the cinemas.
Kosoko made the revelation during a recent interview on African A-List, where he explained that the money used to produce the film came from investors who expected returns on their investments.
According to the actor, the movie failed to generate enough revenue to recover the production expenses, leaving him unable to repay the investors as expected.
He added that the little revenue generated from the cinema release was shared among those involved in the project.
“My film ‘Eleko: Oba Esugbayi’ that recently came out and we took to the cinemas, cost us over N300 million. Do I have 300 million? You should know that some people gave it to me and it was not that they dashed me, they invested in it and we took the film to the cinemas,” Kosoko said.
“Different things happened and we did not earn our money back. The little that was earned was split. As I am, if you hear someone with debt dancing around their neck, it is me,” he added.
The disclosure highlights the financial risks associated with cinema releases in Nigeria, where high production budgets do not necessarily translate into box-office success.
Kosoko’s comments come weeks after fellow Nollywood actor Ramsey Nouah warned that taking films to the cinema is not always a sound financial decision.
Nouah had noted that only a small proportion of films released in cinemas recover their production costs and generate profits.
He also explained that many filmmakers struggle to recoup their investments despite spending substantial sums on advertising and promotion.
Kosoko’s experience adds to the growing conversation about the financial challenges facing Nigerian filmmakers, particularly the difficulty of recovering production costs through cinema earnings alone.
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