With tech money, Editi Effiong made Nigeria’s biggest Netflix hit

Editi Effiong (40) suddenly didn’t feel well this fall. “If the whole world suddenly knocks on your door, your body will feel it,” the Nigerian filmmaker jokes. Effiong has had a stormy autumn: his thriller The Black Book appeared on the streaming service Netflix and became a worldwide hit. “We were even number one in South Korea,” says Effiong. “Unbelievable. Bizarre.”

When NRC Effiong speaks via video link, more than 22 million people have seen his film, in which a father chases after his son’s killers. The Black Book was in Netflix’s worldwide top 10 for three weeks. With a modest budget of one million dollars for Hollywood The Black Book not only one of Nigeria’s most expensive film productions ever; it is also one of the most successful.

Triumph for Nollywood

It is a triumph for ‘Nollywood’, Nigeria’s film industry whose output of more than two thousand new titles every year is only trumped by India’s Bollywood.

A journalist asked him a while ago how Nollywood could keep up with the world leaders, says Effiong: “My answer was that we should not wait for money to come from outside. We have to gamble big and build our own path if we want the rest of the world to respect us.”

That’s what he did, he says proudly. “The first super hit from Africa on Netflix was financed with 100 percent Nigerian money.”

The Black Book, which Effiong started in 2021, offers a glimpse into Nigeria’s troubled past and present, where men with guns rule the roost and corruption is rampant. Nollywood icon Richard Mofe Damijo plays a former military squadron member whose son is framed and then murdered by corrupt police officers. What follows is a two-hour whirlwind in which the father, who thought he had improved his life as a pastor, goes after the perpetrators to clear his son’s name.

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The Black Book had been in his mind for a long time, says Effiong. First the title and the plot, then the form. “But I wasn’t ready for it yet.”

Already Up North in The Set Up is The Black Book the third film for which Effiong, as producer, sold the license to Netflix. The Black Book is also his own directorial debut.

It was not an easy sale. “A year ago, an agent told me that if I wanted to reach a global audience, I had to have a screenwriter and director from Hollywood.” Also then Effiong The Black Book pitched to Netflix, they didn’t bite right away. “’Fix it and then come back to us,’ they said.”

Investments in Africa

Since their ‘arrival’ in 2016, Netflix has invested approximately $175 million in Africa. Especially in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, which provided the majority of local films and series on the streaming platform. The offering mainly consists of licenses, although Netxlix, like competitors Amazon Prime and the African Showmax, also offers more and more ‘originals’: specially made series and films such as Queen Sono, The King’s Horseman in Young, Famous & African.

Nigeria is an important market with 200 million inhabitants and an average age of eighteen years. In fact, nowhere in the world will the media and entertainment industry grow as fast as there in the coming years, wrote consultant PWC in an recent rapport: from 6 billion dollars in turnover in 2022 to 12.9 billion in 2027. This is mainly due to growing access to mobile internet.

Yet the situation is still far from easy, says Ben Amadasun, the Nigerian head of Africa at Netflix. Internet coverage in Nigeria – as elsewhere in Africa – is not good everywhere, and is also expensive. Partly for this reason, Netflix, like Showmax and others, introduced subscriptions specifically for mobile phones, where you as a user can check how much data it costs to download a film or series.

However established Nollywood may seem, according to Amadasun there is still a lot to be gained there: “There is a lot on offer, but quality there is still a lot of work to be done.”

The large potential reach of a streaming service like Netflix helped Editi Effiong with his pitch The Black Book. He promised investors – all from Nigerians booming tech industry – the best cameras, best sets and best people, such as production designer Pat Nebo, who passed away this summer. In short, he promised a world hit. And he was right. “Our stories, African stories, are worth telling,” says Effiong.

Obstacles and optimism

But financing remains an obstacle for many makers: Nigeria’s economy is currently in a terrible state. The Naira, the Nigerian currency, has not been this weak in years and inflation is sky-high – a fact that other African countries are also struggling with. Effiong remains tirelessly optimistic. He has with The Black Book show that it is possible, that it works. It’s time for the next phase, he says: financial support from the major Hollywood studios. If that doesn’t happen, African filmmakers will find the money elsewhere. “The world better pay attention to us,” he grins. “We are coming.”

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