Tafawa Balewa Square, Onikan in Lagos will on Saturday, September 26, host an attempt to push a Nollywood premiere into Guinness World Records history.
The film is Black Market. The target is 50,000 simultaneous viewers. The existing benchmark is 43,624 attendees at a single film screening.
If the Lagos gathering reaches its goal and is verified, the result will place a Nigerian production at the centre of a new global cinema record.
But, the numbers tell only the most obvious part of the story. Behind the attempt is a collaboration between Switch Visuals Productions and Rixel Studios, two creative companies trying to build an experience large enough to justify the scale of the promise.
Switch Visuals, led by Chief Executive Officer Damilola Osikoya, is driving the event-production side of the undertaking. Rixel Studios, led by filmmaker Nora Awolowo, is behind ‘Black Market.’
The result is a premiere that looks more like a festival than an industry screening. TBS will host entertainment, food, games and other activities around the film, allowing the audience to experience the venue for hours before attention finally turns to the screen.
Fifty thousand people cannot simply be invited to arrive at the same moment and sit down. The event has to create its own rhythm, absorbing the crowd and turning waiting time into part of the experience.
Osikoya has described the project as particularly meaningful because of what it represents about young people challenging convention. She has spoken about bold ideas, determination and collaboration, three qualities that become practical necessities when a film premiere begins to operate at the scale of a stadium event.
Rixel’s Nora Awolowo brings a similar appetite for experimentation from the filmmaking side. ‘Black Market’ is the studio’s second feature after ‘Red Circle’ and extends its interest in finding new ways for Nigerian stories to connect with audiences.
Directed by Fatimah Binta Gimsay and written by Gimsay with Abdul Tijani-Ahmed, ‘Black Market’ features an ensemble cast including Lateef Adedimeji, Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Ibrahim Yekini, Scarlet Gomez, Omowunmi Dada, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok and Uzor Arukwe.
The film was shot in Abeokuta, but its most public moment will unfold in the heart of Lagos. TBS gives the attempt both capacity and symbolism. It is a venue associated with national events and huge gatherings, making it an unusually fitting stage for a project that wants its scale to be immediately understood.
The organisers are also expecting the wider event to attract people beyond the 50,000 required for the simultaneous screening. That broader crowd reinforces the festival character of the day while keeping the Guinness target focused on the specific audience participating in the film screening.