Nollywood actor and producer, Fathia Williams, has lamented the treatment her movie is receiving from cinema operators due to scheduling.
Fathia, in a video released on Friday, May 29, 2026, on her Instagram page, called out cinema operators for not giving her movie, ‘Efunroye: The Unicorn’, a favourable time slot that would allow her fans to watch it.
Her debut cinematic project as a producer, “Efunroye: The Unicorn,” hit the cinemas nationwide on May 1, 2026.
While the historical epic about Madam Efunroye Tinubu has drawn major social media buzz and box office attention, it has also thrust her into a wider, ongoing industry clash between Nollywood filmmakers and cinema exhibitors over screening schedules.
”Since my movie got to the cinemas, I have been complaining about this thing over and over. My fans come to the cinema to watch Efunroye and they find out the time slot is 12pm or 9pm. Which fans will come and watch movies at this time.
”We just celebrated Ileya and these holidays are the best time to showcase my movie but my fans were not allowed to watch the movie. I am sad about this. Later they will say your movie did not sell out when it’s the operators that did not give the movie a good time slot. I want my fans to note that I ll continue to sound this out until us done and they should come out and enjoy my movie,” says Fathia.
This has not been the experience of Fathia alone as filmmakers releasing independent or indigenous projects frequently encounter structural friction with cinema chains. The core grievance centers around prime-time allocation.
Instead of landing heavily trafficked afternoon and early evening slots (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM), independent producers often find their films pushed into dead zones making it difficult for the average viewer to attend due to safety and transport constraints.
Producers argue that these unfavorable times create a self-fulfilling prophecy as poor time slots lead to empty halls, which cinema operators then use as an excuse to pull the movie from rotation entirely.
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With few cinemas to showcase the plethora of movies at the cinema, this seems to be a wider Industry constraint.
Ini Edo and Toyin Abraham filmmakers had openly accused cinema operators of deliberate sabotage and unfair showtime distributions during peak holiday windows, pointing out that being restricted to single, off-peak slots severely damages their return on investment.
Conversely, cinema executives and industry pioneers like Mo Abudu have pushed back against these complaints.
The operators maintain that screen allocation is strictly a demand-driven, cold business decision. Running air conditioning and staffing a 100-seater hall for only two or three viewers loses money, meaning prime-time slots will always naturally gravitate toward the films pulling the highest immediate numbers.
Despite the scheduling hurdles and the intense political debate surrounding the historical figure she profiled, Faithia has remained heavily focused on the grind, actively pushing the cinematic run of Efunroye as a major personal milestone dedicated to the legacy of her late mother.
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