#Nollywood Entertainment #Nigeria News: Ay Opens Up On ’30 Days in Atlanta’

By Chris Onuoha

Comedian cum film maker, Ayo Makun, popularly known as AY, has declared that despite grossing about N168 million at the box office in Nigeria, he didn’t think his award-winning romantic comedy film, “30 Days in Atlanta” made huge returns after all.

AY made this revelation,while speaking at the Film makers’ forum monthly, organized by the Nollywood Studies Centre, School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos.

He spoke on the topic, “30 Days in Atlanta: The potentials of comedy as a driving force for success in Film making.”

Sharing the success story of the film, which starred some of the country’s finest actors, AY admitted that despite the menace of piracy, the distributor of the movie, Silverbird Film Distribution, as well as himself made a fortune from the production. “The film grossed the sum N168 million in the cinemas, despite the challenges posed by piracy. I benefited from the production, but the cinema houses made more money than I did. But acknowledging the fact that “30 Days in Atlanta”was my first movie, everything was based on agreement that we signed at that time. As a matter of fact, I didn’t see the movie making much money but it recorded a huge success in the cinemas,” he said.

On how he was able to overcome the challenges posed by piracy, AY, who is planning to shoot the sequel to the award-winning movies said he embarked on adequate publicity and awareness campaign.

AY revealed that he’s currently planning to shoot a sequel to “30 Day in Atlanta”, which he said will be titled ‘A trip to Jamaica.’ “It is not a sequel to “30 Days in Atlanta.” The new film is expected to hit the cinemas between June and July after touring countries like UK, Canada and Jamaica before it premiers in Nigeria.”

390 Day in Atlanta”, shot in Atlanta, US starred the likes of Ramsey Noah, Mercy Johnson, Richard Mofe-Damijo and Hollywood icons, Vivica Fox and Lynn Whitfield. It premiered in the country on October 30, 2014, and has since become the highest earning Nigerian movie at the Box Office.