Funke Akindele wants December back. The Four is her next box office test
For most Nigerian filmmakers, December is a good time to release a film. For Funke Akindele, it has become something closer to a business strategy.
December has become Funke Akindele’s favourite month for a reason. When Nigerians start making plans for Christmas, travelling home, booking parties and deciding where to spend their money, Akindele usually has a movie waiting for them at the cinema. She has spent the past few years making her movies part of the festive season, and the strategy has paid handsomely.
Now she is doing it again.
The Four: No One Fights Alone will arrive in cinemas on December 11, 2026, almost exactly a year after Behind The Scenes rewrote the Nigerian box office. This time, however, Akindele is not simply trying to have another successful December. She is following a run that has made her previous releases some of the biggest movies Nigerian cinemas have seen.
That makes the new movie an interesting test. How many people will still turn up when Funke Akindele puts another movie on the December calendar?
Funke has made December a habit
The pattern is hard to miss. Omo Ghetto: The Saga, released in December 2020, grossed about ₦636 million and became the highest-grossing Nigerian movie at the time. Two years later came Battle on Buka Street, which made about ₦668 million.
Then the numbers began to jump. A Tribe Called Judah, released in December 2023, became the first Nigerian movie to cross ₦1 billion, eventually making about ₦1.4 billion. Everybody Loves Jenifa pushed that further in 2024, grossing about ₦1.88 billion.
Then came Behind The Scenes. Released on December 12, 2025, the movie crossed ₦1 billion in just 17 days and eventually became the first Nigerian movie to pass ₦2 billion. It also recorded ₦129.5 million on Boxing Day, one of the biggest single-day performances in the history of Nigerian cinema.
The figures have turned Akindele’s December release into something audiences now expect. And the timing works. According to Nigeria’s 2025 Box Office Yearbook, cinemas made ₦2.95 billion in December alone, out of ₦15.6 billion for the entire year. Almost one in every five naira spent at the box office in 2025 was spent in December. Akindele has clearly figured out how to get her share of that money.
But The Four is not Jenifa
There is a difference this time. The Four is not another Jenifa story. It is an original movie centred on four women whose friendship is tested as they leave their community and face difficult choices in the city.
Akindele leads a large cast that includes Bisola Aiyeola, Chioma Akpotha, Waje, Richard Mofe Damijo, Timini Egbuson, Lateef Adedimeji, Ali Nuhu, Uzor Arukwe, Ronke Oshodi Oke and Wunmi Toriola. The cast also includes singer Shoday and reality television personalities Mide Iwasokun and Kola Omotosho.
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That matters because Akindele is asking audiences to embrace a new story rather than returning to one of the characters they already know. There is no familiar Jenifa character doing the heavy lifting here. Instead, the movie has to sell its story, its cast and, inevitably, Funke Akindele herself.
The marketing has already started months ahead of the release. After unveiling the cast in August, Akindele released the first look at the movie in September, giving audiences their first glimpse of the characters and setting.
It is a familiar playbook: start the conversation early and keep the movie in people’s heads until December.
The December crowd is getting harder to win
There is plenty of money in Nigerian cinemas, but getting people through the doors is not getting easier. The 2025 Box Office Yearbook recorded 2.8 million cinema admissions for the year, only six percent more than the previous year. Average ticket prices, however, rose by 37 percent to about ₦5,596.
In other words, the box office can keep growing even when the audience does not grow at the same pace. That puts more pressure on movies to become events.
And The Four will have company. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, adapted from Lola Shoneyin’s novel, is scheduled for December 4, while Toyin Abraham’s Bestie is set for December 16. Hollywood will also be competing for the festive audience.
Then there is everything else December brings. Concerts, weddings, parties, travel and the general spending frenzy that comes with the season.
