Nigeria now producing more movies than Hollywood

UN Dispatch’s John Boonstra passes along a fascinating milestone. The Nigerian film industry (known as Nollywood) has surpassed Hollywood to become the world’s second largest after India’s Bollywood: According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) survey, Bollywood – as the Mumbai-based film industry is known – produced 1,091 feature-length films in 2006. In comparison, ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
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586086_090506_nollywood2.jpg
Abidjan, IVORY COAST: TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Boureima HAMA A young Ivorian looks the DVD of a Nollywood (combination of Nigeria and Hollywood) film in a street store in Abidjan, 16 June 2007. AFP PHOTO / KAMBOU SIA (Photo credit should read KAMBOU SIA/AFP/Getty Images)

UN Dispatch’s John Boonstra passes along a fascinating milestone. The Nigerian film industry (known as Nollywood) has surpassed Hollywood to become the world’s second largest after India’s Bollywood:

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) survey, Bollywood – as the Mumbai-based film industry is known – produced 1,091 feature-length films in 2006. In comparison, Nigeria’s moviemakers, commonly known as Nollywood, came out with 872 productions – all in video format – while the United States produced 485 major films.

“Film and video production are shining examples of how cultural industries, as vehicles of identity, values and meanings, can open the door to dialogue and understanding between peoples, but also to economic growth and development,” said UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura.

“This new data on film and video production provides yet more proof of the need to rethink the place of culture on the international political agenda,” he added.

  KAMBOU SIA/AFP/Getty Images

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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