US actor Denzel Washington embraces US actor Samuel L. Jackson onstage during the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences’ 12th Annual Governors Awards at the Ray Dolby Ballroom. FILE PHOTO

By RUFUS MWANYASI
More by this Author

Summary

• With mobile data costs falling in the region and mobile penetration getting deeper, it is safe to say Africa can and will have a commanding share in years to come.
• According to research by A4AI on mobile data prices, Africa, although the least affordable (5.8 percent of average monthly income), has seen its average cost of 1GB drop by a third since the UN target was adopted in 2018.

As the Academy of Motion of Picture Arts and Sciences wonders what punitive action to take toward Will Smith, a long time voting member who also won the best actor award last week, it has the equal, if not greater burden of figuring out how to fully recover from the Covid pandemic.

Combined ticket sales worldwide for last year (Sh2.5 trillion) still came in 50 percent behind 2019’s record Sh4.65 trillion according to the Motion Picture Association’s (MPA) annual THEME report.

Obviously, the “Covid slap” weighed heavily on the industry and it’s safe to say its recovery is a “work in progress”.

Nonetheless, there was a fair share of good news; streaming subscriptions globally reached 1.3 billion last year, the number of films going into production in 2021 – whether for streamers or cinemas – rocketed to 943, up 111 percent from 443 in 2020 and more than in 2019 (814) and the combined global theatrical and home/mobile entertainment market topped Sh11.5 trillion, a growth of 24 percent since 2020.

Fun fact: 179 original films were exclusive to online streaming in 2021, compared to 113 in 2019 and 93 in 2013.

Normally, I would take data that say something about international markets and try to compare them with the previous years – just to see if any trends are emerging. But all this while, we have had to deal with a vague figure – the international box office market (which excludes the US/Canada).

For your information, this market increased by 76 percent (Sh1.9 trillion in revenue) and accounted for 79 percent of the global market. So, if there’s one stat greatly missed from the MPA report is usually the breakdown in country box office totals.

It would have been great to see how the different African countries stack up no matter how negligible.

That said, the Academy admits that year-end comparisons between country box office totals would be challenging due to differing local restrictions.

Anyway, top three box office markets outside the US/Canada in 2021 remain the usual suspects; China (Sh839 billion, including online ticketing fees), Japan (Sh172 billion) and the UK (Sh92 billion).

What is becoming a thing is streaming. This market has been rising over the past few years.

Global home/mobile entertainment market (content released digitally and on disc) reached Sh9 trillion in 2021, a considerable increase of 14 percent compared to 2020.

And here is where I see a lot of hope for the continent. With mobile data costs falling in the region and mobile penetration getting deeper, it is safe to say Africa can and will have a commanding share in years to come.

According to research by A4AI on mobile data prices, Africa, although the least affordable (5.8 percent of average monthly income), has seen its average cost of 1GB drop by a third since the UN target was adopted in 2018.

UN ‘s “1 for 2” affordability target aims at getting 1GB data for no more than two percent average monthly income. This kind of pace promises a captive market that enjoys Hollywood productions.

The writer is managing director, Canaan Capital