Play Network Studios is a subsidiary of Play Network Africa, an entertainment, events, and hospitality powerhouse launched in the year 2007. The Company's brand equity was strategically expanded into movie production in 2019 with the movie Living in Bondage: Breaking Free – a remake of the 1992 drama thriller. Since then, Play Network Studios has been at the forefront of innovative, audacious movie making in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The 1992 Living in Bondage is regarded by many as the first movie to officially launch Nigeria's Nollywood, being the first Nigerian home video to achieve blockbuster success. To reduce the barriers of entry, Play Network Studios strategically leveraged on the popularity and nostalgia of the 1992 Living in Bondage, remaking the movie in a way that resonated with the modern day African audience.
This strategy earned Play Network Studios, through her first project, Living in Bondage: Breaking Free, the highest number of awards in the 2020 Africa Magic Viewer's Choice Awards (AMVCA) among many other internationally acclaimed theatrical awards.
Today in 2024, Play Network Studios has successfully established herself as one of the most successful movie production houses in Africa, having successfully ushered in what many term to be the era of 'New Nollywood', with several nominations and awards to her credit. In 2022, our Netflix Original movie Glamour Girls was named the Best performing Nigerian film and series of all-time on Netflix by the Top Charts Africa, using Flix Patrol's points ranking system. The movie gained a total of 2,542 points on the streaming platform, after holding the Number 1 spot in Nigeria for several weeks, and hitting global top 5 movies in the English category of the platform after 1 week. More recently in 2023, our Netflix Original title Blood Vessel, created predominantly in minority languages Ijaw and Nigerian Pidgin also earned her place as the first Nollywood title to achieve Global Number 1 movie on the streaming platform in the Non-English category for 2 consecutive weeks.
The Play Network Studios continues to produce exceptionally conceptualised and executed Pan-African titles, creatively telling and retelling historic and modern day African stories, all while appealing to both local and international audiences.