Nollywood has made a major mark on the global stage after the Black Market movie drew 51,000 qualifying viewers to a single screening at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos.
The massive turnout on Saturday turned the Lagos venue into a sea of movie lovers, with thousands arriving hours before the screening and long queues reported around TBS from about 2pm.
The highly anticipated screening began at approximately 7pm, with organisers targeting more than 50,000 simultaneous viewers in a bid to break the existing Guinness World Records benchmark.
Guinness World Records later confirmed that 51,000 viewers qualified for the record, based on those who remained at the venue and watched the movie from the beginning until the end.
The confirmation sparked wild celebrations at TBS, with cheers and fireworks erupting as the crowd marked the achievement.
The official Guinness figure, however, differed from the 64,000 attendance earlier announced by Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat.
Guinness World Records explained that its qualifying figure was determined by the number of people who watched the entire movie, rather than the total number of people who attended the event.
The achievement surpassed the previous record of 43,624 viewers, set in 2015 when Iglesia Ni Cristo screened Felix Manalo at The Philippine Arena in Ciudad de Victoria, Philippines.
The record-breaking Black Market movie screening attracted several notable personalities, including Lagos Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture Toke Benson and Nollywood stars such as Lateef Adedimeji, Kunle Remi, Stan Nze, Linda Ejiofor, Gabriel Afolayan and Kunle Afolayan.
Directed by Fatimah Binta Gimsay, Black Market was co-written by Gimsay and Abdul Tijani-Ahmed.
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The crime thriller tells the story of five women involved in a cross-border smuggling operation whose lives spiral into turmoil after the daughter of one of them is kidnapped.
The movie features Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Lateef Adedimeji, Omowunmi Dada, Scarlet Gomez, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok, Itele D Icon and Uzor Arukwe.
Black Market follows the studio’s 2025 debut, Red Circle, and was produced in collaboration with FilmOne Studios, Signet Ring Studios and Switch Visuals Production.
The unprecedented turnout at TBS has now given the Black Market movie a major place in Nollywood’s record-breaking history, following its Guinness World Records recognition.
