Funke Akindele’s ‘Behind The Scenes’ Breaks ₦200M in Opening Weekend

Nollywood actress and filmmaker Funke Akindele has scored another major box office triumph with her latest movie, Behind The Scenes, which earned over ₦200 million in its debut weekend.

The film’s distributor, FilmOne Entertainment, revealed that the movie set the highest opening weekend for a Nollywood film in 2025, becoming the first to surpass the ₦200 million mark during its first three days.

FilmOne also noted that the movie broke five opening-weekend records and attracted the largest weekend audience of the year.
Behind The Scenes delves into the theme of black tax and features Scarlet Gomez in the lead role. The ensemble cast includes Iyabo Ojo, Funke Akindele, Destiny Etiko, Tobi Bakre, Uche Montana, Uzor Arukwe, Ini Dima-Okojie, Adebowale ‘Mr Macaroni’, Ibrahim Chatta, Kamo State, as well as reality stars Handi and Wanni Danbaki.

The film held advanced screenings on December 10 and 11, before opening nationwide in cinemas on December 12.

On Instagram, FilmOne praised Akindele and the Nigerian audience for the film’s success, calling her the “Queen of the Box Office”:
“Thank you, Nigeria, for showing up, filling cinemas, and spreading the word. Behind The Scenes crossed ₦200M in just one weekend, broke five opening-weekend records, and became the biggest opening of 2025! It’s your love that made this possible.”

The distributor confirmed that the movie is still running in cinemas across Nigeria.

This latest accomplishment reinforces Akindele’s dominance at the box office. Her previous movie, Everybody Loves Jenifa, had previously set the record for Nollywood’s largest opening weekend, overtaking her earlier hit A Tribe Called Judah, which opened with ₦113 million.

Everybody Loves Jenifa further reached the highest-grossing Nollywood film to date, generating over ₦1.8 billion in Nigeria alone, with additional earnings from international markets. The film reached the ₦1 billion milestone in December 2024 and continued to attract large audiences into early 2025, setting new standards for West African cinema.