Funke Akindele stopped fixing her hair, stopped going to parties and, by her own account, sometimes forgot to eat while finishing Behind The Scenes, the film that became Nollywood’s highest-grossing release ever. The Nigerian actress, director and producer described that stretch in an interview that resurfaced on X this week, reviving debate over what a ₦2.7 billion box office record actually costs the person who built it.
The film she ran herself into the ground to finish tells the story of a woman whose generosity toward everyone around her slowly costs her control of her own life. Months after its release, Akindele’s account of her own year reads like a rough draft of that same plot.
Sleepless Nights, Skipped Meals and a Life Put on Hold
Speaking with Bella Naija, Akindele said the film’s record run came from total immersion in the work, with little held back for herself.
“For the last movie to cross ₦2.7 billion, it was a lot of sleepless nights for me. A lot of sacrifice, giving my all. I forget to eat sometimes,” she said.
A clip of the remarks, shared by the fan account sleepless nights, missed meals and no hair care, spread quickly after it was posted. In the fuller conversation, Akindele detailed exactly what she gave up.
- Parties and social events: “I don’t attend parties,” she said, describing a near total withdrawal from her social calendar during the shoot.
- Visiting family and friends: “I don’t go to greet people at home,” she said, referencing the Yoruba custom of paying regular respects to relatives and neighbours.
- Her hair: she said she skipped it entirely, “except when I am going on the red carpet or somewhere important.”
- Meals: she described forgetting to eat during production, calling it routine rather than rare.
- Sleep: she said sleepless nights became normal while she wrote, researched and shot the film.
It is not the first time she has described this kind of withdrawal. At a Wema Bank International Women’s Day event, she said she once shut herself away in her estate for almost two years while building her brand, a period so isolating that colleagues accused her of becoming a recluse, unaware she was working.
How Behind The Scenes Climbed to ₦2.7 Billion
The numbers moved fast almost from the start, based on milestones announced by FilmOne Entertainment, the film’s distributor, and by Akindele herself.
- December 12, 2025: Behind The Scenes opens nationwide after two advance screenings, then posts a ₦200 million opening weekend, the biggest of the year.
- December 24, 2025: twelve days in, the film crosses ₦512 million, already the highest-grossing Nollywood release of 2025.
- Boxing Day, 2025: it posts a single-day gross of ₦129.5 million, the highest one-day total in Nollywood history.
- December 30, 2025: nineteen days in, it crosses ₦1.1 billion, the fastest any West African film has reached that mark.
- Early January 2026: it reaches ₦1.77 billion and stays the weekend’s number one film.
- January 12, 2026: it crosses ₦2 billion, hitting an exact ₦2,103,039,706 and becoming the first Nollywood film in Africa to do so.
- January 27, 2026: the tally passes ₦2.4 billion.
- By March 2026: the film settles at roughly ₦2.7 billion, a total it has held since.
That climb put Behind The Scenes ahead of her own back catalogue, the same catalogue that already made her Nollywood’s most consistent box office draw.
| Film | Release Year | Box Office Gross | Milestone |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Tribe Called Judah | 2023 | ₦1,408,227,541 | Her first ₦1 billion hit |
| Everybody Loves Jenifa | 2024 | ₦1,882,553,548 | Fastest Nollywood film to ₦500 million that year |
| Behind The Scenes | 2025 | ₦2,755,489,396 | First Nollywood film past ₦2 billion; highest-grossing ever |
The precise final figure, ₦2,755,489,396, comes from one industry breakdown of the film’s finances; press coverage across Nigeria has generally rounded it to ₦2.7 billion.
The Character She Wrote Started Looking Like Her
Behind The Scenes follows Aderonke “Ronky Fella” Faniran, a successful real estate entrepreneur whose generosity toward the people around her gradually consumes her private life. As relatives, friends and associates pile on demands for her time, money and attention, Aderonke is forced to confront what happens when personal boundaries collapse. The film is built around the Nigerian concept of black tax, the financial and emotional obligation to support extended family, and explores responsibility, emotional labour and the cost of success for women in leadership specifically.
Akindele wrote, produced and co-directed the film with Tunde Olaoye. Whatever she built into Aderonke’s arc, she described living a version of it herself during production: total consumption by obligation, this time to a film set rather than a family, ending in the same crowded-out private life.
What Does a Producer Actually Keep From a ₦1 Billion Weekend?
A Nollywood producer typically keeps well under half of a film’s reported box office gross once government tax, cinema exhibitors and distributors take their share, according to veteran producers who have broken down the math publicly. The headline number rarely reflects what reaches the person who financed and built the film.
Nollywood veteran Ebun Oloyede, known professionally as Olaiya Igwe, made that point using Akindele’s own numbers. “This is the part people don’t understand about ‘₦1B at the box office.’ That number looks massive on the surface, but it’s not the producer’s money. Cinemas take a big cut, distributors take theirs, marketing has already eaten deep into the budget,” he said, adding that by the time everyone else is paid, the filmmaker can be left with little.
One industry site attempted to model where the money actually goes. After government tax, it estimated Behind The Scenes’ net box office at ₦2.45 billion, then applied an estimated 50/50 split between cinemas and producers, putting roughly ₦1.23 billion toward exhibitors and a similar amount toward the distributor-producer pool before the producer’s own costs are even deducted. The site was clear that these were illustrative estimates, not confirmed accounting, since neither Akindele nor FilmOne has published exact production or distribution costs.
Her Colleagues Don’t Agree on How She Gets There
The dance videos Akindele posts to promote every release have become their own subplot. Filmmaker Kunle Afolayan said in January he would not fully return to cinema releases unless he could sell a film without dancing to promote it. “I’ll make a film, if you guarantee me, I’ll not dance to sell that film. I don’t know how Funke and the likes are doing it,” he said at the Lagos Business of Film Summit.
Akindele pushed back on Instagram without naming him directly. “If you can’t beat them or join them, create your own path. No allow jealousy burn you,” she wrote. In a later interview she addressed the criticism head on. “I do more than dance. People should stop belittling my work to just dancing. I also do nails for people,” she said.
Her peers split on the question.
- Kunle Afolayan says exhausting promotional dancing is not a strategy he wants to keep using, and has pointed to streaming platforms as a lower-pressure alternative.
- Iyabo Ojo defends Akindele, arguing there should be no fixed rulebook for how filmmakers market their work.
- Omotola Jalade Ekeinde has said she personally prefers not to dance to sell her films, calling her own approach more professional.
Rival Producers Say December Wasn’t a Level Field
Behind The Scenes dominated a crowded December window that also included This Is Not a Nollywood Movie, A Very Dirty Christmas, Oversabi Aunty and Colours of Fire. Its record run sat alongside complaints from other producers releasing films through the same distributor.
Niyi Akinmolayan, Toyin Abraham and Ini Edo all raised concerns about cinema scheduling practices that they said disadvantaged smaller titles, including unfavourable time slots and uneven promotional support, according to Premium Times. None accused Akindele’s film directly, but the complaints surfaced in the same weeks Behind The Scenes was setting records at the same cinema chains.
The Skincare Routine She Finally Allowed Herself
Akindele has said the intensity eased once the film’s theatrical run slowed down. “It’s just now that I’m relaxed, feeling fresh, doing the skincare routine, looking beautiful, smelling nice,” she said.
She has also started talking about what comes after the record. In a wide-ranging conversation about her filmmaking journey, she said she wants to help build the next generation of female Nigerian filmmakers. Nigeria’s National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB, the country’s film content regulator) has already honoured her for the run Behind The Scenes had. Asked by a fan on X why she had paused her Aiyetoro Town web series, she offered two words: “Cooking something new.”
Frequently Asked Questions
How much has Behind The Scenes grossed at the box office?
Behind The Scenes has grossed ₦2,755,489,396, generally rounded to ₦2.7 billion in Nigerian press coverage, making it the highest-grossing Nollywood film ever produced, both in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom and Ireland, according to distributor FilmOne Entertainment.
What box office records does Funke Akindele hold?
Akindele is the only director to cross ₦1 billion at the Nigerian box office three separate times, and the first filmmaker to deliver three consecutive ₦1 billion-plus films within a single calendar year. She also owns several of Nollywood’s highest-grossing films of all time, including Omo Ghetto: The Saga and Battle on Buka Street.
Who stars in Behind The Scenes alongside Funke Akindele?
The film is led by Scarlet Gomez, with an ensemble cast that includes Iyabo Ojo, Destiny Etiko, Tobi Bakre, Uche Montana, Uzor Arukwe, Ini Dima-Okojie, Adebowale “Mr Macaroni” and Ibrahim Chatta, alongside Akindele herself.
When was Behind The Scenes released, and can it be streamed now?
The film opened in Nigerian cinemas on December 12, 2025, after advance screenings on December 10 and 11, and later opened in United States cinemas on January 9, 2026. It has since moved to Netflix, where viewer reactions to its emotional scenes were still circulating months after its cinema run ended.
Why did Funke Akindele’s sacrifice comments resurface now?
The remarks were recorded during a Bella Naija interview four days before a clip of them began circulating widely on X on July 13, 2026, months after the film had finished its main theatrical run and long after the ₦2.7 billion figure was first reached.
