•A large crowd of movie lovers at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos, during the Guinness World Record-breaking screening of ‘Black Market’
Nollywood crime thriller Black Market has broken the Guinness World Record for the largest attendance at a film screening in a single location, with more than 51,000 people watching the movie at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos.
The record-breaking screening took place yesterday as thousands of movie lovers gathered at the Lagos venue for the highly anticipated premiere, reports Channels TV.
Guinness World Records confirmed the feat after the screening, officially recognising 51,000 viewers as the qualifying attendance for the record.
Although Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat announced that 64,000 people attended the event, Guinness World Records said the qualifying figure was based on viewers who remained from the beginning to the end of the movie.
The announcement of the feat drew loud cheers, celebrations and fireworks from the crowd.
Organisers had targeted 50,000 simultaneous viewers, aiming to surpass the previous record of 43,624 people, set in 2015 during the screening of the Filipino film Felix Manalo at the Philippine Arena.
The Black Market screening attracted a massive crowd, with long queues reported around TBS earlier in the day as attendees arrived for the event.
The gates opened at 2pm, with the red carpet beginning at about 3pm ahead of the main screening scheduled for 7pm. The event also featured music, food, games and other entertainment activities.
The event was attended by Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture Toke Benson, and Nollywood stars including Lateef Adedimeji, Kunle Remi, Stan Nze, Linda Ejiofor, Gabriel Afolayan and Kunle Afolayan.
Directed by Fatimah Binta Gimsay and co-written by Gimsay and Abdul Tijani-Ahmed, Black Market follows five women involved in a cross-border smuggling operation whose lives are thrown into turmoil after the daughter of one of them is kidnapped.
The film stars Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Lateef Adedimeji, Omowunmi Dada, Scarlet Gomez, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok, Itele D Icon and Uzor Arukwe, among others.
The screening was organised by Rixel Studios in collaboration with FilmOne Studios, Signet Ring Studios and Switch Visuals Production.
The event was planned as an official Guinness World Records attempt and was designed to surpass the 43,624-attendance benchmark established more than a decade ago.
