What Four 2026 International Theatrical Releases Say About African Film Circulation

I saw an Instagram post yesterday morning from Fatherland Productions — the Lagos-based company that Akinola Davies Jr. and his brother Wale run with producer Funmbi Ogunbanwo — reminding American audiences that "My Father's Shadow" is still in US theaters and encouraging them to go see it. I realized I hadn't actually looked at the film's box office numbers since it opened in the UK and US about five weeks ago. Given everything that preceded those releases — first Nigerian film in Cannes Official Selection, MUBI acquiring the rights before the festival even opened, the Caméra d'Or Special Mention, the BAFTA, the Gotham nods, the 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, the UK Oscar submission — I figured it was time to check in.

So I pulled up Box Office Mojo (BOM) and The Numbers. Why? They're the two most reliable public sources for tracking theatrical box office data in one place and in real time — short of paying for Comscore access, digging through territory-specific institutional sources like France's CNC or Unifrance, or waiting for annual databases like those from the European Audiovisual Observatory to catch up.