Why Nollywood’s first zombie film made N40m and counting

‘Alive Till Dawn’, opened in Nigerian cinemas on January 30, 2026, and has grossed over N40 million in its second week, breaking new ground for Nollywood as the industry’s first theatrical zombie apocalypse film to receive a wide cinema release. The film is a production by Leo Obienyi and Uzor Arukwe and follows a group of people trapped together after a sudden outbreak turns ordinary life into a fight for survival.

For an industry long shaped by romance, family drama, and comedy, ‘Alive Till Dawn’ has taken a different direction from the norm. It moves Nollywood further into genre filmmaking, particularly horror, which has often existed on the margins rather than at the centre of mainstream cinema releases.

Sunshine Rosman stars as Alex, an officer’s daughter who tries to survive a viral outbreak. Uzor Arukwe doubles as a cast member playing the role of Badu, an ex-convict leader, while Michael Dappa plays Isaac.

The movie weaves local issues, such as environmental neglect, into a modern-day apocalypse setup, but critics describe the movie as slow-paced with weak characters, and heavy reliance on hollywood style that doesn’t fully resonate with the local audience.

X user and popular movie reviewer @thecreativexx provides a balanced yet critical take on the movie. He commends the movie for its bold ambition in tackling a fresh genre for Nigerian cinema, appreciating the attempt to deliver a survival thriller amid a sudden zombie outbreak that traps diverse characters in a building, forcing them to confront loyalty, fear, and survival.

However, he heavily criticised the execution, pointing out lazy scripting that fails to establish meaningful backstories or explain the zombie origins, resulting in underdeveloped characters that audiences can’t fully root for.

He also highlights issues like poor dialogue, weak tension-building, subpar sound design, and an overall derivative feel that leans too heavily on Western zombie tropes without meaningful cultural adaptation or innovation, leading him to rate it around a middling 5/10 while emphasising that Nollywood’s biggest ongoing hurdle remains stronger, more thoughtful scriptwriting to elevate such ambitious projects.

The movie has gotten some praise for trying out different genres. X user Donald Tombia, who praised the boundaries being pushed by Nollywood filmmakers, said, “Let’s have more: more boundaries pushed, more genres explored, more, more, more!” he wrote.

So far, ‘Alive Till Dawn’ has earned over N40 million at the box office, with over N20 million on its opening weekend. This has placed the movie, which was distributed by Nile Entertainment, as the highest-grossing Nollywood film so far in 2026.

The figure also places the movie among the top-performing films during that release window and shows that audiences were willing to pay to see a horror film made locally. Movies like ‘Everything is New Again’(N28.1 million), which falls under the romance/drama genre, was out performed by the zombie movie.

Horror is not new to Nollywood, though it has often appeared in different forms. Early Yoruba films such as Ìkòtò Ayé explored fear through spiritual and cultural themes. Later titles like Egg of Life, The Oracle, and Diamond Ring brought supernatural stories into mainstream cinema, mixing fear with moral and social lessons.

In 2014, Ojuju by C.J Obasi explored a zombie outbreak in Lagos and gained attention on the festival circuit, though it did not receive a wide local cinema run at the time. It premiered at the 4th Africa International Film Festival, where it won the award for “Best Nigerian Movie”.

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in horror, with filmmakers returning to the genre in more deliberate ways. One example is The Weekend, directed by Daniel Oriahi, which was released in the past few years. The film picked up local awards, including AMAA for Best Film in 2024. Its reception showed that horror films could gain both audience and industry recognition.

In 2025, according to BusinessDay reports, horror films were performing strongly at the box office with released titles such as Sinners (N775.8 million), Final Destination 6(, Weapons (N96.8 million), The Conjuring 4, which made N176 million by mid-October, and 28 Years Later, which recorded over N32.8 million at the box office.

‘Alive Till Dawn’ adds to the growing body of evidence that horror films can find an audience in Nigerian cinemas. Its box office performance, online discussion, and place within Nollywood’s evolving genre landscape suggest that the industry is testing new directions with measured results.

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