Bolaji Ogunmola, a Nigerian filmmaker, has explained how movie producers receive their shares from film productions and how much they make from producing movies.
Bolaji Ogunmola Explains How Filmmakers Make Money From YouTube
In an interview on Built The Hard Way, she explained that the amount a filmmaker makes from YouTube depends on where viewers watch the content from.
Ogunmola said: 
“It depends on who is watching it, if Nigerians are watching it just know that you are not making money from that thing. If Africans are watching it just know you are not making money from it.”
She continued:
“If you are not into YouTube you won’t really understand because it’s more about where you are watching from determines how much money you would get from your ads. So if you are a big content creator on Instagram and you do a Youtube film and you get all the views, it doesn’t mean you are making money. You can see 1 dollar as profit.”
READ ALSO: Was Toyin Abraham Right? Faithia Balogun is Also Accusing Cinemas of Sabotage
How Cinema Revenue Gets Shared
The host also asked Bolaji to explain how much she made after reportedly grossing ₦1 billion from cinemas.
She explained that the producer receives about 30 per cent of the cinema revenue, while the remaining 70 per cent goes to the cinema and other parties involved in the distribution and exhibition of the film.
Ogunmola who is one of the producers of the cinema film, Ginger said:
“It’s about 30 percentage that comes back to the producer. The 70% goes back to the cinema people. They have to service their hall, pay for generator and other things. It also goes to tax, exhibitors and those that distributes the film as well. And the producer’s 30% will still be taxed.”
Why Making a YouTube Movie Costs More
The filmmaker also explained that producing a YouTube movie requires more money than producing regular YouTube content, even though creators may receive lower returns from the project.
She continued:
“What really gets funny is that, even for YouTube when you make a YouTube content you spend less.”
Ogunmola explained that when she makes a YouTube movie she spends more. Yet they tax her on the amount of money they see.
But it doesn’t work like that because she has to remove the money she spent on investment. She has collected money from her friends and people she borrowed from. She has to return the money.
READ ALSO: Top 10 Biggest Cinemas in Nigeria by Ticket Revenue
Bolaji Ogunmola Speaks on Filmmakers and Tax
She also raised concerns about how authorities calculate taxes for filmmakers. She said that they should consider the money producers spend on their productions before determining taxable income.
She lamented:
“The issue is they don’t task us based on profit because sometimes when I see the taxes I would laugh. Let’s go and do the books so that when I calculate all these films for them they would know.”
Bolaji Ogunmola added that filmmakers keep records of their production expenses and transactions. This helps them determine whether they actually made a profit from their films.
She said:
“Thankfully we have records and all the transactions receipts and invoices so when they calculate the money sometimes you don’t make profits.”
She concluded by urging those responsible for taxation to understand how film production and the creative industry operate before determining the amount creators should pay.
The actress said: “I think they really need to understand how it works for creators before they start to throw money around.”
About The Author
