Who is To Blame for the Piracy of Half of a Yellow Sun?

"Half of a Yellow Sun", the most expensive Nigerian film since the emergence of the phenomenal Nollywood is currently being pirated on the street and on the internet. It is the tragic fate of this film that was largely financed with loan from the US$200 million Entertainment Intervention Fund of the Nigerian Creative and Entertainment Industry Stimulation Loan Scheme (NCEILS) run by the Bank of Industry in Nigeria and the world premiere was in the Special Presentation section at the 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2013. The film also screened at other international film festivals with both public and private premieres in the UK and Nigeria with commercial screenings at cinemas in the UK. But the public screenings have been delayed for months in Nigeria by the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) until a week ago when it got the much awaited approval among 77 movies and rated “18”. And the movie is expected to start screening at the cinemas in Nigeria from August 1, 2014, when the movie is already officially streaming on PANATV.com for US residents and will begin online streaming from Monday August 4, 2014 for UK residents. Then the official release date for the Blu-ray / DVD is July 29, 2014, but the DVD of “Half of a Yellow Sun” is already selling on Amazon.com and pirated on YouTube with the title of "[Hexok Movie] Watch Half of a Yellow Sun Full Movie [[Netflix]] Streaming Online (2014)" (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iTNr84kk4M). This is piracy, because only PANATV.com has the right to play it online for US residents. And the worst case is the fact that the film is being pirated by several CD/DVD vendors on the streets of Lagos and other cities in West Africa and the producers of the film are doing nothing about it.


Piracy is destroying the Nigerian film industry and all the stakeholders are to blame with the exception of those who have been reporting the inadequacies and shortcomings in Nollywood, Kannywood and other integral components of the Nigerian film industry. But the title chasers are more desperate for setting up their self appointed committees to represent Nigeria at coveted international annual award events in America and joining international associations instead of addressing the economic sabotage caused by piracy, the most common enemy of progress of all producers of movies and other forms of entertainment. And the news reporters in Nigeria who are employed to report and expose the rampant crimes of piracy are more interested in collecting brown envelopes and as the proverbial saying goes, "He who pays the piper dictates the tune". So, it is not surprising that when intellectual works are being pirated openly in public, the news reporters prefer to only gossip about it in their newsrooms and rendezvous pubs in town.

What causes piracy of intellectual works is poor content management by the producers and distributors who fail to implement the available anti-piracy strategies and tools and the incompetent administrators in government.

Many filmmakers and distributors in other countries are working in cooperation and support with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) that “believes in protecting creative works and the people who make them. Whether you’re making a film, writing a book or recording a song, the amount of time, effort, and investment is more than a passion – it’s also someone’s livelihood. For America’s creative sector to thrive, intellectual property laws must protect the hard work of creators and makers while ensuring an Internet that works for everyone.” But filmmakers and distributors in Nigeria have no defined plans for the control and prevention of the piracy of movies and in fact willingly offer their movies to those who undervalue the financial worth by repeatedly broadcasting and recycling them on cable TV networks and public TV channels. They don’t even care how many times and locations their movies are broadcast once they have been paid as little as US$2,000 (two thousand dollars) only and then their movies are pirated in other locations outside Nigeria.
Is the US$2,000 for one broadcast on TV or for life broadcast?

Only a fool or retard will give his or her movie to a distributor online or offline for just one-off payment of such a pittance in Nigeria and do nothing as the same creative work is circulated widely for the entertainment of millions of cable TV subscribers and public TV viewers in other countries in Africa. And while the stars are enjoying the stardom of their continental and global celebrity status as famous household names, collecting millions as appearance fees and more millions from endorsements as brand ambassadors, the producers are left at the mercy of dishonest distributors and pirates. And to worsen their predicament, the Nigerian government has failed to sign bilateral co-production treaties with other countries to promote and protect Nigerian movies in international markets as many other countries have done.

- You can listen to the podcast and see more on: http://www.nigeriansreport.com/2014/07/who-is-to-blame-for-piracy-of-half-of.html#sthash.0YMs4iIY.dpuf

Pirates na...

I believe the producers can take down the 'youtube link'. And sue youtube for copyright infringement.
...unless ofcourse, they are the ones who put it there.
Fox sued youtube for ordinary trailer of 'exodus' not to talk of having a full lenght movie.
So...

No dulling for Alaba boys. I wonder what took them so long with the useless ban

The Nigerian government for what ever reason for not showing the movie in cinema when it was in high demand.

Pirates will always do their thing. The movies had already been released in other countries like in the UK, so the possibility of it being pirated in Nigeria will be easy.

NW is to blame. I can't imagine how a movie said to be NW own movie is shown in HW cinema three months plus earlier before our censor board even approved of it in NW. IMDb shows that the Movie even sucked in US box office making not more than $49,000 after three months. If I'm to shoot my own movies in future (if only NW remains the way they are now) my max budget won't exceed N20 million because budgeting more than that is a big risk for business 'cause of NW's prior projects gross, our only primary problem is Cinema, if we don't have cinemas in our major cities budgeting upto $10 million is a huge risk, and also our film makers (minus producers) are not trying, directors, actors and actresses are not trying at all, they all forget a project after its premier unlike hollywood actors etc that will aid to promote the film anywhere, comic-con etc
What am I trying to say, the producer of the movie would have made sure that the release were synchronized with NW (max of a week difference), ohw maybe he taught that he'll make big cash over there, HW has their way of doing things as I believe, a movie that is not HW is not HW no matter how you hyped it or maybe casting all their actors and actresses, it doesn't belong to them so the product will be treated like an outsider. The piracy we're witnessing now is just the genesis, wait until the chinese will include it in all these mixed movie collections and also the movie is going to be on DVD by 27th of this month, imagine, we that own the movie still dey wait till 1 august to watch for cinema, I can bet my phone charger that this movie won't earn up to US $49000 box office gross.

The pirates are to blame.

Anyway as Tony has said; no Nollywood/Nigerian movie should have a budget of more than N10 million sef.

Ok it's made $214,000 in the UK alone (obviously not adding what they made during the various festivals) but opening on only 3 or 4 screens in the US is just plain dumb!

I blame the producers and local distributors for lack of professional experience in marketing the film.
The DVD or CD is reported to be selling for N150 a copy on the streets of Lagos. So, the pirates have already done their Nigerian premiere of "Half of a Yellow Sun" before the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) approved it. And the pirated copy at N150 can be shared and watched by many buddies and friends.
The marketing of the film has been mismanaged.

Orikinla:
The marketing of the film has been mismanaged.

Totally agree.

Sadly the thread is now lost but in one thread I mentioned the second I saw Monterey Media had the US distribution rights for this film, it pretty much seemed dead in the water.
Look at all the films prior to HOAYS and see the crappy number of screens they have been releasing films on. Useless numbers -
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/studio/chart/?studio=montereymediainc.htm

VillageBoi:

Totally agree.

Sadly the thread is now lost but in one thread I mentioned the second I saw Monterey Media had the US distribution rights for this film, it pretty much seemed dead in the water.
Look at all the films prior to HOAYS and see the crappy number of screens they have been releasing films on. Useless numbers -
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/studio/chart/?studio=montereymediainc.htm

Planning is everything.
Everything is planning.

I warned them from the beginning, but the executive producers were boasting that they had the best marketing plans and when I said they needed to fast and pray, Biyi Bandele told me to remove him from my mailing list and I did so gladly. Then he went on CNN to blame the incompetence of Nigerian officials for their problems with local distribution in Nigeria which is a lie. Even in his own backyard in the UK, his first feature "Half of a Yellow Sun" bombed before his very eyes.
It is really pathetic that they are so confused that their film is being shown online, at cinemas and also in DVDs at the same time and gave pirates the loopholes to use to pirate the film.
Their lack of professional experience is so glaring.

^ ^ ^
Na wa o!

If only we knew what 'really' went on behind the scenes with the Exec Prods, Prods & Director. The whole thing seems well off. This is one film that 'should' have made it but it's all gone wrong.

But according to this thread of a vanguard article it has generated £1m so far... still very low in comparison to the $10m budget - https://www.nairaland.com/1819435/half-yellow-sun-gross-n280m

^^^^^
This is so sad.
But let's see what will happen at the cinemas after its release.

Orikinla, how do you think the pirates got hold of the copy if the movie since it has not been released on dvd yet.?
Could it have been downloaded from youtube? If so, youtube can be sued.
Or could it be that the cinema distribution company involved in the films Nigerian distribution is corrupt or what?

How did it really happen is the lesson here...

prof800: ^^^^^
Orikinla, how do you think the pirates got hold of the copy if the movie since it has not been released on dvd yet.?

The 'Producers' themselves sold at least 'streaming rights' to PanaTv, I can't remember where else I saw it but 'pirates' are also tech savvy and no matter how much protection a streaming site has I guess it can still be cracked - http://panatv.com/half-of-a-yellow-sun/

The producers and marketers were confused.
They should have consulted Chineze Anyaene and Obi Emelonye who have been able to distribute their movies successfully.

Orikinla: The producers and marketers were confused.

Maybe one day we will find out what happened with this film. So far the 'ticket' sales figures don't look good... but then of course there are various 'rights' that they have sold but we'll probably never find out how much those were sold.

Nollywood n piracy

Irokotv and okin is killing Nigeria movie industry,why would they put their movies on youtube for people to watch free and later complain about piracy

Hmmn.... Piracy is more or less wrought in the fabrics of Nollywood.... Perhaps, some marketers may have a hand in it too.

Monkey dey work baboon dey chop syndrome!
That has eaten so deep in the entertainment industry especially Nigeria!
Who is to be blame? Case for the gods I say!
It will take lifetime to kill piracy. when the top is corrupt what then do ♈όϋ expect from the bottom!
Na the Owner of the film I pity!

I'm sorry for all that happened
Just put the blame on me

Everything is pirated. From video to computer games. It is not a Nigerian thing alone. There are pirate websites where things that have been pirated can be downloaded.

it's on YouTube already? brb

I blame d feminist who wrote d book.

I want to watch this movie pirated or not

OP,are you sure about the NETFLIX thingy?I have searched on Netflix and no results!

Waiting for Nollywood's version by Obalex production lol

Government.
With proper legislation and enforcement most of the guys perpetrating this act would be in jail by now.
Go to Oshodi,you see this pirates selling four or more films for the price of one in full glare of everyone. Piracy business is done in secret but here in Naija it is done in broad day light.
Our security agents too do not help matters,with just a few bucks they set piracy offenders free.
If films produced in Nigeria have continuosly been pirated year in year out without government nipping the pirates in the bud,why then will
Half Of A Yellow Sun not be pirated.

don't blame alaba boys...the tried to make it possible for the poor masses o

Koolmexxi: Pirates na...

Correct answer to the OP question,so clap for yourself.

NBC