FilmOne, West Africa's largest film distributor, has withdrawn all its titles from Nigeria Cinema Day 2026, a decision announced by EbonyLife Cinemas roughly an hour ago and one that reshapes what moviegoers will find on offer when the discount begins on Saturday.
In a notice shared by EbonyLife Cinemas it said FilmOne titles would no longer screen as part of Cinema Day, following FilmOne's decision to withdraw its slate from the initiative. Guests who had already purchased Cinema Day tickets for the affected titles were promised a full refund or the option to exchange for a ticket to another film. EbonyLife apologised for the inconvenience but gave no further explanation for the withdrawal, and FilmOne is yet to issue a public statement on the matter.
Nigeria Cinema Day was created in 2023 by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria, CEAN, as a coordinated industry effort to bring lapsed moviegoers back into cinemas through a single day of nationwide discount pricing. Tickets sold for 1,000 naira in the inaugural 2023 edition and held at that price again in 2024, before rising to 2,000 naira in 2025. For 2026, CEAN set the date as September 26 and the price at 3,000 naira, with the day open to any film across participating cinemas nationwide, spanning Nollywood, Hollywood and Bollywood titles. Since its founding, the event has depended on every major distributor agreeing to waive its usual pricing terms for the day, and no distributor is known to have pulled out of it before now.
What makes the timing notable is that September 26 is also the date FilmOne and Rixel Studios are staging their Guinness World Record attempt for Black Market at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. Organisers are targeting an audience of up to 50,000 people for the single screening, aiming to surpass the current world record of 43,624, held since 2015 by a premiere in the Philippines. FilmOne is both co-producer and distributor of Black Market, and the studio has been actively courting the same Lagos moviegoing public it would ordinarily be discounting tickets for through Cinema Day. Whether that overlap directly informed the withdrawal has not been confirmed by either party, but the two events were always going to compete for the attention and spending of the same audience on the same day.
As West Africa's largest distributor, controlling a significant share of what plays across Nigerian cinemas at any given time, FilmOne's absence is likely to be felt in the range of films available to Cinema Day patrons this weekend. This remains a developing story, and Nollywoodcv will update it as FilmOne, CEAN or EbonyLife release further information.
