As a result, he says, many Nigerians and foreigners now keep a date with Nigerian movies at his outfits, a situation that, he adds, has prompted its management to provide more platform for them, even as it continues to show what he calls the best of movies from abroad too.
He says, "There has been a tremendous improvement in the patronage of Nollywood movies in cinemas in the last couple of years. We now have cinema-goers coming to watch Nollywood movies. Nollywood producers that have made efforts in improving the quality of their productions always perform amazingly well at the box office."
According to Sewanu, titles such as Ije, Tango With Me, Phone Swap, Last Flight to Abuja, Maami, and Weekend Getaway are good examples of Nollywood movies that have enjoyed good patronage at the box office.
Currently, however, the GM concedes, among the movies that are generally doing well at the box office, The Wolverine is topping the chats in Silverbird Cinemas. According to him, World War 2, due for release this week, is one of the most anticipated movies this year.
On how the organisation prepared for the current holiday, he explains that since 2004, Silverbird Cinemas has always been part of such celebrations, especially where it has outlets.
We constantly provide box office hits, optimal fun and all round entertainment to customers during this period of fun and family ties. Definitely, this Eid-el-Fitri celebration is not an exception."
In terms of security, which is a major challenge that many cinema houses face, Sewanu says although a weekend like the current one is expected to bring an upsurge of cinema-goers, Silverbird makes security of lives and property of visitors to its premises a priority. On a complaint that some films advertised in its brochures are not often shown at the cinemas, he says if anything like that happens, it has to do with factors beyond the organisation's control.
He explains, "When a movie is scheduled in the brochure, it is always based on the fact that the various distribution firms that sourced for titles on behalf of the cinemas have scheduled a date that we will get the movie before the commencement of exhibition. But sometimes the distributors have logistics problems which will invariably affect our timing of previously scheduled movies, which would have gone to print days before. But this is not a common occurrence at all."
Steadily widening its empire, the Silverbird Group, which held its annual Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, only recently opened a new outlet at Ikeja City Mall, Lagos. Sewanu calls it the first fully digitalised cinema on the continent.
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