Nollywood Just Made History and a Phone Call Started It All

There is a scene somewhere in Call of My Life where everything changes for Soluchi, a heartbroken call centre agent whose quiet, ordinary life pivots entirely because of a phone call she did not expect, and it turns out that is exactly the kind of story Nigerian audiences in 2026 were willing to show up for, again and again, weekend after weekend, until the numbers became something the entire industry needed to stop and look at properly.

₦817.6 million at the Nigerian box office, confirmed by FilmOne Entertainment and now documented across Nigeria’s major entertainment publications, and the film is still showing in cinemas nationwide with its sights set on ₦1 billion, which would make it the first Nollywood film released outside the December festive season to reach that milestone in the industry’s history.

The records it has broken are worth listing not because lists are exciting but because each one of them changes what the industry believes is possible going forward, highest-grossing Nollywood film of 2026, highest-grossing BluHouse Studios production, highest-grossing romantic comedy in Nollywood history, highest-grossing May release ever and the top-performing film of the year across every metric that matters, all achieved by a film starring Uzoamaka Power, Andrew Yaw Bunting, Beverly Osu, Nkem Owoh, Patience Ozokwor, Zubby Michael, Broda Shaggi and Justin UG, directed by Dammy Twitch in his feature film debut, a sentence that deserves a moment to sit with because debut feature directors do not typically rewrite box office history in their first outing.

What Call of My Life has done goes beyond its own numbers, it has answered a question the Nigerian film industry has been asking for years, whether audiences will show up consistently and in large numbers for intimate, character-driven romantic comedies outside the crowded December release window when the country is in a holiday mood and going to the cinema feels like the natural thing to do, and the answer the box office has returned is unambiguous.

The film held the number one spot at the Nigerian box office for several consecutive weekends following its May 15 release, fending off competition from Iwe Ala: An Ojude Oba Story, On Different Grounds and Michael, and the staying power it demonstrated week after week is the detail that matters most to producers and distributors trying to understand what the audience actually wants, because a film that opens big is impressive but a film that keeps people coming back is the one that changes business models.

A romantic comedy with no superhero or sequel attached, breaking records on its own terms, tells investors that everyday Nigerian stories are bankable, and that signal, arriving clearly and loudly in the middle of a year when the industry has been navigating real pressures around production costs and audience behaviour, is exactly the kind of confidence injection Nollywood needed.

Blessing Uzzi produced it, FilmOne Entertainment distributed it, BluHouse Studios backed it and Dammy Twitch directed it, and together they made something that Nigerian audiences decided was worth ₦817.6 million of their money and counting, which in any language is the industry’s way of saying thank you for telling a story we recognise, told the way we needed it told.

If you have not seen it yet, the cinema is still open, and at this point going feels less like entertainment and more like participation in something historic.

Great Nigerian stories deserve a great Nigerian night out. Sort your entertainment budget on Monica and make sure nothing stands between you and the cinema this weekend.

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