‘Black Market’ breaks Guinness World Record

Nollywood crime thriller Black Market has broken the Guinness World Record for the largest attendance at a film screening in a single location with more than 51,000 people watching the movie at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos.

The record-breaking screening on Saturday September 28 attracted thousands of movie lovers with many scrambling for seats.

Guinness World Records confirmed the feat after the screening, officially recognising 51,000 viewers as the qualifying attendance for the record.

The previous record of 43,624 people set in 2015 during the screening of the Filipino film Felix Manalo at the Philippine Arena made the organisers target 50,000 simultaneous viewers.

Although Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat announced that 64,000 people attended the event, Guinness World Records said the qualifying figure was based on viewers who remained from the beginning to the end of the movie.

The announcement of the feat drew loud cheers, celebrations and fireworks from the crowd.

Directed by Fatimah Binta Gimsay and co-written by Gimsay and Abdul Tijani-Ahmed, Black Market follows five women involved in a cross-border smuggling operation whose lives are thrown into turmoil after the daughter of one of them is kidnapped.

The film stars Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Lateef Adedimeji, Omowunmi Dada, Scarlet Gomez, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok, Itele D Icon and Uzor Arukwe, among others.

The screening was organised by Rixel Studios in collaboration with FilmOne Studios, Signet Ring Studios and Switch Visuals Production.