Agbara Nla preview hits N71m, sets Nollywood single-day records

Agbara Nla: The Return has earned more than N71 million at the West African box office from preview screenings, setting multiple records before its official cinema release on October 2, 2026. The faith-based film sold more than 12,000 tickets during previews, the biggest single-day preview gross ever in West Africa and the highest preview admissions for a movie in 2026, according to Nile Entertainment and Nigerian box office data.

Records before official release

Initial box office data showed the film earned about N70 million from 12,134 admissions, enough to rank as the No. 1 movie of the week despite being shown only as a preview. Nile Entertainment later said the figure had crossed N71 million.

The performance is the biggest first-day gross for a Nollywood movie, the biggest Nollywood single-day gross on record and the biggest single-day box office gross recorded in October. It is also the biggest opening for a faith-based movie at the West African box office. The release marks the return of Agbara Nla 33 years after the original Yoruba Christian film became one of the defining productions of Nigeria's faith-based movie industry.

Lagos and South-West dominate revenue

Lagos accounted for 50.8% of Agbara Nla's revenue, making it the film's largest market by a significant margin. Oyo followed with 13.2%, while Abuja contributed 10.7%. Ogun accounted for 6.2%, followed by Kwara at 4.5%, Osun at 3.8%, Edo at 3.3% and Ondo at 2.7%.

Rivers contributed 1.9%, Plateau 0.6% and Akwa Ibom 0.5%. Delta and Enugu each contributed 0.4%, while Abia and Kaduna accounted for 0.3% apiece. Cross River and Kano each represented 0.2% of revenue, while Anambra accounted for 0.1%. Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun and Ondo alone accounted for about 76.7% of reported revenue. Abuja was the strongest market outside the South-West, contributing more than a tenth of the film's early box office revenue.

Agbara Nla leads weekly box office

Agbara Nla finished ahead of several major titles during the period. Star Lomo recorded N45.8 million from about 7,900 admissions, while Avengers: Endgame - Encore grossed N44.2 million from 7,549 admissions. Spider-Man: Brand New Day added N34.5 million, pushing its cumulative West African gross beyond N2.3 billion.

Resident Evil generated N29.8 million from 4,214 admissions in its second week, taking its cumulative gross to N76.1 million. 19 earned N18 million, while Heart of the Beast recorded N16 million. The Odyssey added N13.3 million, taking its cumulative gross to N871.8 million. King Kosoko and Ikenga generated N8.9 million and N7.7 million, respectively.

Faith-based films gain momentum

Agbara Nla's record preview comes amid growing commercial momentum for faith-based and faith-influenced films at the Nigerian box office. In 2024, What About Us, the filmmaking debut of Celebration Church International's lead pastor Emmanuel Iren, grossed N24.6 million during its opening weekend and ranked as the highest-grossing movie in Nigerian cinemas during the period. The film subsequently crossed the N100 million mark, becoming the seventh Nigerian movie to reach the milestone that year.

The segment recorded another major theatrical performance in 2026 with Laju Iren's Onobiren: A Woman's Story. The faith-based drama opened with N30.1 million between March 6 and 8, topping the weekend box office across Nigeria and Ghana. Onobiren ended its seven-week theatrical run with N138.1 million at the West African box office, placing it among the Nigerian movies to cross N100 million in 2026.

Agbara Nla's more than N71 million preview gross is already more than twice Onobiren's N30.1 million three-day opening and nearly three times the N24.6 million opening weekend recorded by What About Us. For cinema operators and distributors, the numbers show faith-based titles can pull large audiences, with Lagos and the South-West still the core market.