Omo Ghetto: The Saga

Box office

The film grossed over ₦189 million in the opening week of its release and historically became the first Nollywood film ever to gross over ₦99 million in its opening weekend, surpassing the previous record set by The Wedding Party 2.^[6] In its second week, the movie continued breaking box office records by grossing over ₦132.4 million and firmly staying at the top of the Nigerian box office and bringing its 2-week gross to a record breaking ₦322 million and placing it as the fourth highest grossing Nigerian movie of all time.^[15]

In its third week, despite seeing a drop of 43% from the previous week, Omo Ghetto still topped the box office and grossed ₦75.4 million bringing its total cumulative to ₦398.5 million just after three weeks. Omo Ghetto was so popular that it accounted for about 65% of the box office in Nigeria.^[16] Omo Ghetto kept dominating the Nigerian box office, raking up ₦45.9 million to top the box office. It brought the cumulative box office figure to ₦444.5 million, placing it as the second highest grossing Nollywood film of all time after just four weeks. Omo Ghetto the saga is currently the highest grossing Nigerian movie of all time with ₦468,036,300 in just over a month ^[17]

Omo Ghetto continued dominating the box office in its fifth week grossing ₦35.7 million^[18] thus bringing its cumulative to ₦480.5 million and becoming the highest grossing Nollywod movie of all time despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The film continued to extend its record by becoming the first Nollywood movie to stay six consecutive weeks at the top of the box office, grossing an additional ₦31.5 million.^[19] It also historically became the first ever Nigerian film to gross ₦500 million in the Nollywood box office.^[20]

The film remained top at the box office in its seventh week, grossing an additional ₦27.3 million.^[21] bringing its cumulative to ₦539.6. Omo Ghetto topped the box office in its eighth, ninth and tenth week respectively becoming only the second movie in English-speaking West Africa to cross the ₦600 million mark after Black Panther.^{[citation needed]}

Critical response

Yousuph Grey of Premium Times gave the film a score of 8.5/10 praising Funke Akindele's Dual role as Lefty and Ayomide and also for its positive and warm depiction of ghetto life, which is different from movies that tend to condemn ghetto lifestyle. Grey also stated that despite the toughness of Lefty, She is a person of strong moral values. Also highlighting the chemistry among the actors, especially Lefty's and Askamaya Bees' group of people and his rivals – Femi Stone's group of frauds. According to the Grey , the first act of the movie was slow compared to other acts of the movie.^[22] In a similar review by Fridous Adetutu of What Kept Me Up also praised Funke Akindele's dual performance as Lefty and Ayomide and the film's mix of Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Edo, Pidgin, and English for its naturalistic feel. The review noted a subplot on police harassment of suspected internet fraudsters as echoing wider debate around the End SARS protests, while criticising the final fight scene's choreography and calling a rival-gang brawl subplot unnecessary.^[23]