NetNaijaBox

Nollywood in eight boxes

Nollywood is a big world to walk into, full of family sagas, Lagos thrillers, Yoruba epics and wedding comedies, and the first question for a new viewer is simply where to start. NetNaijaBox answers with a box. It gathers the Nigerian films and series that TMDB, the community film database, lists with an English synopsis, a poster and at least one viewer rating, and it packs them into eight boxes, one rule at a time.

The result is a guide to 154 titles, 130 films and 24 series, from 1999 to 2025. There is a box for the series, from Far from Home to Shanty Town; a heritage box for the films in Yoruba, Igbo and other languages and for the history epics, from Amina to Jagun Jagun; two boxes of crime and thrillers, split at 2021; a love box; a laugh box; and two boxes of drama, split at 2020. The board on the home page, The eight boxes, shows them all at once, each with its own wax-print colour.

This is a small window onto a very large industry. TMDB lists more than a thousand films with Nigeria as their country of origin, and only a small share of them have an English synopsis, a poster and a rating. NetNaijaBox works with that share, says so plainly, and lets the numbers show how recent most of these titles are.

The box rule

Every title goes into exactly one box, and the box is chosen by the first rule it matches, in a fixed order. First, every series goes into the series box. Second, every film whose original language is something other than English, and every film that TMDB files under History or War, goes into the heritage box. Third, films filed under Crime, Thriller, Action, Mystery or Horror go into a crime box: the crime box to 2021 for films up to that year, the crime box from 2022 for the rest. Fourth, films filed under Romance go into the love box. Fifth, films filed under Comedy go into the laugh box. Everything left is drama, and goes into the drama box to 2020 or the drama box from 2021.

The order matters. A Yoruba comedy such as Prophetess goes into the heritage box, because the language rule comes before the comedy rule. A romantic thriller such as Sylvia goes into a crime box, because the crime rule comes before the love rule. A Christmas romance with jokes, such as A Naija Christmas, goes into the love box, because romance comes before comedy. Once you know the order, every box on NetNaijaBox can be read at a glance: its label tells you the first thing the film is.

A few titles were left out by hand before the boxes were packed: reality and game shows such as The Real Housewives of Lagos and Abuja and LOL: Last One Laughing Naija, a British sitcom, a British documentary about Lagos, a Japanese anime that TMDB had tagged as Nigerian, a title whose name would clash with the rules of this site, two very short films and one film about a daughter sold into sexual slavery. Everything else that met the basic conditions is here.

NetNaijaBox in figures

The 154 titles span 1999 to 2025, but most of them are recent. Only twelve come from before 2016. The count then climbs: six titles in 2016, nine in 2017, seven in 2018, ten in 2019, eleven in 2020, sixteen in 2021, eighteen in 2022 and thirty in 2023, the busiest year of the guide, before eighteen in 2024 and seventeen in 2025. Almost all list Nigeria as a country of production, 152 of 154; ten also list the United States, nine Britain and four France.

English is the language of 138 titles. Ten are in Yoruba, two in Igbo, and one each in Wolof, Akan, French and Swahili; those last four include films from Ghana and Kenya that TMDB also links to Nigeria. Together the 154 titles hold 2,223 votes on TMDB, an average of fourteen each, and only 49 titles have ten votes or more. That is why NetNaijaBox always shows a rating with its vote count in this guide, and why its list Rated 7 or more counts only titles with at least five votes.

The series box

The series box holds 24 Nigerian series from 2013 to 2025, and it is the most rated box of the eight, with 552 votes, as well as the best rated: an average of 6.95, with fourteen series at 7.0 or more. Most of them are short: the middle series of the box has six episodes, and seventeen of the 24 have a single season.

The three most rated series all came out in 2022 and 2023. Far from Home, with 144 votes and a rating of 8.1, follows Ishaya, a young man who wins a scholarship to an elite school and enters the luxurious world of the very rich, with Funke Akindele and Richard Mofe-Damijo in the cast. Blood Sisters, with 134 votes and a rating of 8.1, follows two best friends who must run after a wealthy groom disappears at his own engagement party. Shanty Town, with 113 votes, has the best rating of the three, 8.4: a group of courtesans tries to escape a notorious kingpin, in a world of political corruption and family ties.

Power, money and the city

Many of the series are about power. King of Boys: The Return of the King, from 2021, brings back Alhaja Eniola Salami as she reaches for a new kind of position, and is rated 8.2 from 28 votes. To Kill a Monkey, from 2025, also rated 8.2, follows an ordinary man drawn into cybercrime by an old friend. Wura sets its secrets in the gold mining industry around a chief executive who is also a perfect wife and mother. Sons of the Caliphate and The Governor, both from 2016, are political dramas, the first about three rich young men in a northern state approaching an election, the second about a deputy who must suddenly take over as governor.

Other series stay closer to home. Castle and Castle, from 2018, follows a married couple of lawyers who run a practice in Lagos, with nineteen episodes over two seasons. Lekki Wives, from 2013, the oldest series in the box, follows five women in the Lekki district of Lagos across four seasons. Postcards, from 2024, sends a Nigerian single mother to India for a medical check-up, and her journey touches the lives of everyone she meets.

Spirits, kings and sequels

The series box also carries some of the stories of the heritage and crime boxes further. Seven Doors, from 2024, rated 8.1, is the story of a simple man named Adedunjoye who is told that the kingship of Ilara has come to his family line. Aníkúlápó: Rise of the Spectre continues the film Aníkúlápó from the drama box over two seasons and eleven episodes. Òlòtūré: The Journey continues Òlòtūré from the crime box, following its undercover journalist on the road to Europe. The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi turns a famous school ghost story into a series about a vengeful spirit at an isolated college.

Among the newest titles are The Party, a 2025 mystery about a death at a lavish Lagos party, and Baby Farm, a 2025 drama about a pregnant woman who trusts the wrong organisation with her babies. Both have only one or two votes so far, so their ratings can still change a great deal as more viewers rate them. Funke Akindele, Lateef Adedimeji and Nancy Isime all appear in SHE Must Be Obeyed, a 2023 series about ambition in the entertainment business.

The heritage box

The heritage box holds twenty films that look back at history or speak a language other than English. Ten are in Yoruba, two in Igbo, and one each in Wolof, Akan, French and Swahili; four more are English-language history and war films. The box runs from 2013 to 2025, holds 505 votes, and averages 6.54, second only to the series box.

Epics of the old kingdoms

The two most rated films of the box are history epics in English. Amina, from 2021, with 139 votes, tells the story of Amina of sixteenth-century Zazzau, today's Zaria, who uses her military skill to defend her family's kingdom; TMDB notes that it is based on a true story. House of Ga'a, from 2024, with 121 votes, goes to the height of the Oyo Empire, when the Bashorun Ga'a became more powerful than the kings he enthroned. Both films run two hours, and together they hold more than half of the votes of the heritage box.

The Yoruba epics follow. Jagun Jagun, from 2023, with 58 votes and a rating of 6.7, follows a young man who joins an elite army and meets the anger of a warlord and the love of a fierce woman. Lisabi: The Uprising, from 2024, retells the legend of a folk hero who rebels against an oppressive empire. Beast of Two Worlds and Lakatabu, both from 2024 and both directed by Odunlade Adekola, deal with kings, powers and dynasties; Lakatabu has the best rating of the Yoruba films with at least five votes, 8.0 from seven. Ireke: Rise of the Maroons, from 2025, follows a West African prince sold into slavery to a Jamaican plantation, where he joins the escaped slaves known as the Maroons.

Modern stories in many languages

Several heritage films are set in the present. Citation, Kunle Afolayan's drama of 2020, has the best rating in the box among films with at least ten votes, 7.4 from 53: a bright student takes on her university when she reports a popular professor who tried to rape her, a story TMDB notes is based on real events. Afolayan has two more films in this box, the Yoruba drama Ìjọ̀gbọ̀n from 2023, about four village teenagers who find a pouch of uncut diamonds, and Swallow from 2021, about a bank secretary in 1980s Lagos who is drawn towards drug trafficking.

The two Igbo-language films are Blood Vessel, a 2023 thriller about six people who flee a town ruined by oil pollution on a mysterious ship, rated 6.9 from 31 votes, and B for Boy, a 2013 drama about one woman's desperate wish for a son, which shows how women can be pushed aside in the name of culture and religion. Azali, an Akan-language film from Ghana, follows a fourteen-year-old girl sent away from northern Ghana to escape an arranged marriage. Disconnect: The Wedding Planner, a Kenyan romantic comedy, and Married to Work, a Swahili-language comedy about a struggling real estate agency, show how far the TMDB label for Nigerian titles can stretch across the continent.

The Yoruba-language list

Beside the heritage box, NetNaijaBox keeps a separate list of its ten Yoruba-language titles, from Fate of Alakada in 2020, the comedy with Toyin Abraham about a social-media influencer who fakes her way into a Lagos success story, to Ireke in 2025. Prophetess, Niyi Akinmolayan's comedy of 2021, is about a local prophetess who makes a bold prediction about a football match. Lateef Adedimeji and Femi Adebayo are the actors of this list: both appear in Jagun Jagun, Lakatabu and Beast of Two Worlds, and Adedimeji also in Lisabi: The Uprising.

The two crime boxes

Crime and suspense fill two boxes and forty films, more than any other kind of story in the guide. The rule puts every film that TMDB files under Crime, Thriller, Action, Mystery or Horror here, unless it already went into the series or heritage box, and splits them at the end of 2021. The crime box to 2021 holds fourteen films from 2009 to 2020; the crime box from 2022 holds 26 films from 2022 to 2025. The second box is almost twice as large and better rated, 6.07 on average against 5.01.

The crime box to 2021

The older crime box is led by Òlòtūré, from 2019, with 54 votes and a rating of 6.3: a young journalist goes undercover in Lagos to expose a network of human trafficking, a story that the series box continues in Òlòtūré: The Journey. Two films by Kunle Afolayan follow. October 1, from 2014, is a detective thriller set in September 1960, as Nigeria prepares for independence and a police detective hunts a killer of young women. The Figurine: Araromire, from 2009, the oldest film of the crime boxes, tells of two friends and a woman whose lives change after one of them finds a figurine in an abandoned shrine.

The rest of the box mixes city stories and odd ideas. Taxi Driver: Oko Ashewo, from 2015, is a crime comedy about a small-town mechanic who becomes a chauffeur for the mob. The Lost Okoroshi, Abba Makama's surreal comedy of 2019, turns a security guard into a silent masquerade spirit. Last Flight to Abuja, from 2012, is a disaster drama on a Nigerian airliner, and Sylvia, from 2018, a psychological thriller centred on a childhood friendship. Rattlesnake: The Ahanna Story, from 2020, is Ramsey Nouah's heist film about a young man who decides to rob his way to the life he wants.

The crime box from 2022

The newer crime box is the busiest in the guide, with 26 films. The Black Book, from 2023, leads it with 104 votes and a rating of 6.7: a deacon who has just lost his wife takes on a crooked police gang to clear his son of a false charge, with Richard Mofe-Damijo in the lead. Gangs of Lagos, from 2023, follows a group of friends growing up on the streets of Isale Eko, and is one of two films in this box by Jadesola Osiberu, with The Trade, about a notorious kidnapper. Hijack '93, from 2024, imagines four men who seize an airliner to bring down a military government, and Tòkunbọ̀, from 2024, gives an ex-car smuggler three hours to deliver a government official's daughter.

Funke Akindele, the most frequent actor of the guide, directed two films in this box. A Tribe Called Judah, from 2023, is a comedy about the Judah brothers, who plan to rob a small mall with their mother's help and meet real armed robbers when they arrive; it is rated 9.1 from twelve votes, the highest rating in the guide among titles with ten votes or more. Everybody Loves Jenifa, from 2024, brings back her character Jenifa, whose world turns upside down when a new neighbour wins over the community. Mami Wata, C.J. Obasi's fable of 2023 about an oceanside village and its water deity, is the box's most unusual entry, and Son of the Soil, from 2025, an action film about a soldier who returns home after his sister's death.

Small films with big ratings

Several titles in the crime boxes have very high ratings from very few votes, and they are worth knowing about with that in mind. Passport, from 2022, a comedy about a rich young man who must team up with a tomboy from the ghetto to recover his stolen passport, is rated 8.5 from two votes. The Blood Covenant, about three ambitious young men, is rated 8.0 from three, and 3 Cold Dishes, about three women trafficked as teenagers who reunite, is rated 8.0 from two. Nimbe, a film about drug abuse from 2019, is rated 7.5 from two votes. Each of these could move by a whole point with the next few ratings, so treat them as invitations rather than verdicts.

The love box

The love box holds nineteen films that TMDB files under Romance, from 2012 to 2025. It is the box of weddings, Christmases, airports and second chances, and also the box with the lowest average rating, 4.8; many of its films have only two to five votes. The most rated is A Naija Christmas, Kunle Afolayan's comedy of 2021, with 48 votes and a rating of 6.7: three sons try to make their mother's dream come true by bringing wives home for Christmas.

Namaste Wahala, from 2020, has the best rating of the box, 6.9 from 31 votes: a Nigerian woman and an Indian man fall in love across two cultures, with Ini Dima-Okojie and Richard Mofe-Damijo in the cast. Half of a Yellow Sun, from 2013, the most international film of the box, is a story of twin sisters in newly independent Nigeria, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandiwe Newton, directed by Biyi Bandele. Bandele also made Fifty, from 2015, about four friends taking stock of their lives at midlife.

The love box has its classics of Lagos comedy. Phone Swap, Kunle Afolayan's film of 2012 and the oldest of the box, begins when two strangers swap identical phones at an airport. The Wedding Party 2: Destination Dubai, from 2017, follows Nonso and Deirdre after an accidental proposal. '76, from 2016, is a love story set against the attempted military coup of 1976, with Ramsey Nouah and Rita Dominic. Okafor's Law, Isoken and A Sunday Affair are about a serial seducer, a family worried about a daughter's choices and two best friends, and A Lagos Love Story, from 2025, the newest of the box, sends a festival planner into a romance in the city.

The laugh box

The laugh box holds fifteen comedies, from 2016 to 2025, that were left after the earlier rules took their share. It is led by Chief Daddy 2: Going for Broke, from 2021, with 88 votes: the Beecroft family wants to spend the inheritance of their late patriarch, and the chief executive of his company stands in the way. Both Chief Daddy films are here, and both were directed by Niyi Akinmolayan, the most frequent director of the guide with ten titles.

Funke Akindele is the star of the laugh box. She appears in six of its fifteen films and directed three of them: Omo Ghetto: The Saga in 2020, Battle on Buka Street in 2022 and Behind The Scenes in 2025. Battle on Buka Street, about two lifelong rivals who open food businesses on the same street, is rated 9.3 from three votes. Green White Green, Abba Makama's comedy of 2016, follows three boys from Nigeria's major ethnic groups making a short film about the country's history, and American Driver, from 2017, sends an American chauffeur to drive Nigerian celebrities to an awards show.

The two drama boxes

Whatever the earlier rules left behind is drama, and it fills two boxes split at the end of 2020. The drama box to 2020 holds eleven films from 1999 to 2020, the oldest titles of the guide; the drama box from 2021 holds 25 films from 2021 to 2025. Here are some of the most personal and most ambitious films in NetNaijaBox.

The older drama box opens with Billionaires Club, from 1999, the oldest title of the guide, about a secret society that makes money through occult power. Living in Bondage: Breaking Free, from 2019, returns to that world as the sequel to Living in Bondage, following the son of its hero. Mother of George, from 2013, the most rated of the box with 32 votes, follows a Nigerian couple in Brooklyn who struggle to have a child, with Danai Gurira. The Arbitration, from 2016, is a courtroom drama about a chief executive accused by an employee, and The Bridge, Kunle Afolayan's film of 2017, about a Yoruba prince and an Igbo woman who marry in secret. Ezra, from 2007, follows a former child soldier who must testify about his past.

The newer drama box is led by My Father's Shadow, from 2025, with 56 votes and a rating of 7.2: two young brothers explore Lagos with their father during the election crisis of 1993. Aníkúlápó, Kunle Afolayan's fantasy of 2022, rated 7.1 from 43 votes, follows a traveller given a second life by a mystical bird, and Elesin Oba: The King's Horseman, from 2022, tells the story of a royal horseman in the Oyo Empire of the 1940s, inspired by real events. The Man of God, Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) and All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White are three portraits of people trying to live their own lives, the last two in Lagos.

The directors across the boxes

Because the box rule sorts films by what they are, the work of a single director often lands in several boxes, and that is one of the best ways to see how wide a Nollywood career can be. Niyi Akinmolayan is the most frequent director of the guide, with ten titles in six boxes: the two Chief Daddy comedies and Palava! in the laugh box, Lisabi: The Uprising and Prophetess in the heritage box, The Wedding Party 2 in the love box, The Set Up in the crime box to 2021, The Arbitration in the drama box to 2020, and The House of Secrets and The Man for the Job in the drama box from 2021.

Kunle Afolayan follows with nine films in five boxes. His thrillers October 1 and The Figurine are in the older crime box; Citation, Ìjọ̀gbọ̀n and Swallow in the heritage box; A Naija Christmas and Phone Swap in the love box; The Bridge in the older drama box; and Aníkúlápó, his fantasy of a second life, in the newer drama box. Read in order, from The Figurine in 2009 to Ìjọ̀gbọ̀n in 2023, his nine films cover fourteen years of the guide.

Biodun Stephen has six films, spread over four boxes: Big Love in the love box, Breaded Life in the laugh box, Hotel Labamba in the newer crime box, and To Freedom, Sistá and The Wildflower in the newer drama box. Jadesola Osiberu has four, Gangs of Lagos and The Trade in the newer crime box and Isoken and Christmas in Lagos in the love box. Funke Akindele, better known in front of the camera, directed five: A Tribe Called Judah and Everybody Loves Jenifa in the newer crime box, and Omo Ghetto: The Saga, Battle on Buka Street and Behind The Scenes in the laugh box.

The faces of the guide

Funke Akindele is the actor who appears most often in NetNaijaBox, in thirteen titles across five boxes: the series Far from Home and SHE Must Be Obeyed, the history epic House of Ga'a, six comedies in the laugh box, two crime comedies and two love stories, Isoken and Who's the Boss. Lateef Adedimeji follows with ten titles: four Yoruba films in the heritage box, a series, a comedy, two crime films including Passport, and two dramas from 2021 on, among them Lisabi: A Legend is Born.

Richard Mofe-Damijo, the veteran of the guide, appears in nine titles, and five of them are series: Far from Home, Shanty Town, King of Boys: The Return of the King, Postcards and Castle and Castle. His other four are The Black Book and Suspicion in the newer crime box and Namaste Wahala and Okafor's Law in the love box. If you want to follow one actor through the new wave of Nigerian streaming series, he is the one to follow.

Sequels, spin-offs and returning stories

The guide holds several sequels and pairs. The two Chief Daddy films sit together in the laugh box, from 2018 and 2021. The Set Up and The Set Up 2 are split across the two crime boxes, from 2019 and 2022. Finding Hubby and Finding Hubby 2, from 2020 and 2022, are both in the love box. Two films carry stories into the series box: Òlòtūré continues as Òlòtūré: The Journey, and Aníkúlápó as Aníkúlápó: Rise of the Spectre.

Other titles continue stories whose first chapters are outside the guide. King of Boys: The Return of the King follows the film King of Boys; The Wedding Party 2 follows The Wedding Party; Living in Bondage: Breaking Free follows Living in Bondage; Everybody Loves Jenifa and Fate of Alakada bring back characters from earlier comedies; and Omo Ghetto: The Saga belongs to a longer series of films. The legend of Lisabi appears twice, as the Yoruba-language Lisabi: The Uprising in 2024 and as the English-language Lisabi: A Legend is Born in 2025.

Lagos everywhere

Lagos is the great setting of the guide. At least 23 titles name the city or its Lekki district in their title or synopsis, from Gangs of Lagos and Christmas in Lagos to The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos, Red Circle and Lekki Wives. The city is the backdrop of crime stories such as Òlòtūré and Taxi Driver: Oko Ashewo, of love stories such as A Lagos Love Story and 2 Weeks in Lagos, and of quieter dramas such as Eyimofe and My Father's Shadow, where two boys see the city with their father in 1993.

Outside Lagos, the guide travels to the old kingdoms of Oyo and Zazzau in the heritage box, to a village in South West Nigeria in Ìjọ̀gbọ̀n, to an oceanside village in Mami Wata, to Ibadan in All na Vibes, to India in Postcards, to Brooklyn in Mother of George and to Dubai in The Wedding Party 2.

How the box filled up

Seen year by year, the boxes tell the story of a recent boom. Before 2016 the guide holds only twelve titles, spread thinly from 1999 to 2015. From 2016 to 2020 the love box and the older crime box lead with ten titles each, and the laugh box follows with seven: love stories and comedies make up more than a third of the titles of those five years, with four love stories in 2020 alone. In 2019 the older crime box takes the lead, with five of the ten titles of that year.

From 2021 the shape changes. The heritage box grows, with four titles in 2021, seven in 2023 and four in 2024, as the Yoruba epics and history films arrive. The series box grows too, with six series in 2023, five in 2024 and four in 2025. And the newer crime box becomes the largest box of the guide, with five films in 2022, nine in 2023 and six in each of 2024 and 2025. The year 2023, with thirty titles, is the busiest of all: six series, nine crime films, seven heritage films, six dramas and two love stories.

Rated 7 or more

Because so many titles have only a few votes, NetNaijaBox keeps a separate list, Rated 7 or more, for titles with a rating of at least 7.0 and at least five votes. Fourteen titles qualify, and nine of them are series. A Tribe Called Judah leads with 9.1 from twelve votes, followed by Shanty Town with 8.4 from 113, King of Boys: The Return of the King and To Kill a Monkey with 8.2, and Far from Home, Blood Sisters and Seven Doors with 8.1. Lakatabu and Olóládé, the series about two friends who suddenly become rich, are rated 8.0.

The films on the list besides A Tribe Called Judah and Lakatabu are Citation with 7.4, My Father's Shadow with 7.2 and Aníkúlápó with 7.1. Together with Aníkúlápó: Rise of the Spectre at 7.0 and Wura at 7.6, they show that the most rated corner of NetNaijaBox is also its best rated: the new series and the ambitious films made since 2020.

Choosing a box for the evening

Each box suits a different evening. For a first night with Nollywood, start in the series box with Far from Home or Blood Sisters: both are short, well rated and among the most rated titles of the guide. For a night of history, open the heritage box with Amina or Jagun Jagun. For suspense, the newer crime box offers The Black Book and Gangs of Lagos. For laughter, the laugh box offers the Chief Daddy films and Battle on Buka Street, and for a family night at the end of the year, the love box has A Naija Christmas and Christmas in Lagos.

The films of the guide run 106 minutes on average, and the longest is The Breakpoint, from 2025, at 153 minutes, followed by Citation at 151 and October 1 at 148. The series are short too: half of them have between five and eight episodes, so a whole series often fits into a weekend. The longest series are Sons of the Caliphate with 26 episodes over two seasons and Lekki Wives with 22 over four.

How to read the board

The board on the home page, The eight boxes, shows every box as a tile. A wax-print band runs across the top of each tile in its own colour: teal for the series box, magenta for the heritage box, red for the two crime boxes, orange for the love box, yellow for the laugh box and green for the two drama boxes. Above the name of the box stands the word Naija box, and below it the number of titles. Click a tile to jump to its row of posters on the same page, and use the button at the end of each row to open the full box.

Each poster card shows the TMDB rating at the top right, the year at the top left and the name of the box along the bottom edge of the poster. Below the title come the first genre and the running time for a film, or the number of episodes for a series.

A first week with NetNaijaBox

If you want a plan, here is one week that visits every kind of box. On the first evening, start with Blood Sisters from the series box: eight episodes over two seasons, a missing groom and two friends on the run, and the second most rated series of the guide. On the second, go back in time with Amina, the most rated film of all, and its warrior heroine of sixteenth-century Zazzau. On the third, stay in the heritage box for Citation, Kunle Afolayan's campus drama, rated 7.4 from 53 votes.

On the fourth evening, turn to the newer crime box for Gangs of Lagos and the streets of Isale Eko. On the fifth, laugh with Chief Daddy 2: Going for Broke and the Beecroft family's fight over an inheritance. On the sixth, try the love box with Namaste Wahala, the best rated romance of the guide. On the seventh, end the week in the newer drama box with My Father's Shadow, rated 7.2 from 56 votes, as two brothers follow their father through Lagos in 1993. Seven evenings, six boxes, and a wide view of what Nigerian cinema has been making in the last few years.

A second week could follow a person instead of a box. Seven titles with Funke Akindele, from Far from Home to Battle on Buka Street, would take you through the series, laugh, love and crime boxes; seven with Richard Mofe-Damijo would take you through five series, from Castle and Castle in 2018 to Postcards in 2024, and two crime films, The Black Book and Suspicion. A week with Lateef Adedimeji would begin in the Yoruba epics of the heritage box and end with the comedy Passport. Either way, My list keeps your plan in one place.

Reading small numbers

The ratings in NetNaijaBox deserve a word of care, because the vote counts behind them are small. Only twelve titles have fifty votes or more: Far from Home, Amina, Blood Sisters, House of Ga'a, Shanty Town, The Black Book, Chief Daddy 2, Jagun Jagun, Gangs of Lagos, My Father's Shadow, Òlòtūré and Citation. Another 37 have between ten and 49 votes, 26 have between five and nine, and 79 have four votes or fewer. The ten most rated titles alone hold 1,013 of the 2,223 votes in the guide, close to half.

That shape has two consequences. The first is that a rating of 9 or 10 from two votes says very little; it is the opinion of two viewers. The second is that the ratings of the most rated titles are the most stable, and they are a fair guide to how Nigerian titles have been received by viewers who rate on TMDB. This is why the guide gives each rating with its vote count, why the list Rated 7 or more asks for five votes, and why the rows of every box are ordered by the number of votes rather than by the rating.

What the genres say

Drama is the most common label in the guide, carried by 102 of the 154 titles, and it often sits beside a second label that decides the box. Comedy comes next with 37 titles, then Romance with 25, Crime and Thriller with 23 each and Action with fifteen. Mystery, Fantasy, History, Horror and War are rarer, and so are documentaries: only two, Skin, a film from 2019 in which the actress Beverly Naya explores the meaning of beauty across the shades of black skin, and The Legend of the Underground, a 2021 film about young non-conformist Nigerians who face discrimination.

Labels overlap a great deal, which is why NetNaijaBox needs a rule at all. A Tribe Called Judah is both a comedy and a crime film; Sylvia is both a romance and a thriller; Prophetess is a Yoruba comedy. The rule settles each case in the same way every time, so the boxes are easy to trust: if a film is in the love box, it is a romance that the series, heritage and crime rules let through.

Family, faith and celebration

Running through every box is a set of themes that give Nollywood its warmth. Families are everywhere: the Beecroft clan of the Chief Daddy films, the mother of three sons in A Naija Christmas, the Judah brothers and their mother, the Osayande family worrying about Isoken and the brothers of My Father's Shadow. Faith appears in The Man of God, Breath of Life and Prophetess, and celebration in the weddings of The Wedding Party 2 and Disconnect: The Wedding Planner and the Christmas of A Naija Christmas and Christmas in Lagos.

These themes cross the boxes freely. A family story can be a comedy, a crime caper or a drama; a wedding can be the setting of a romance or of a mystery, as in Blood Sisters, where a groom vanishes at his own engagement party. If you follow a theme rather than a box, NetNaijaBox becomes a different guide each time you open it.

Searching NetNaijaBox

The search box at the top of every page looks through titles, alternative titles and cast names. Type Shanty Town to go straight to the series, Funke Akindele to see her films and series, or Amina to reach the epic. Titles with Yoruba spellings, such as Ìjọ̀gbọ̀n or Òlòtūré, are listed with their accents, and the A–Z page lists all 154 titles in alphabetical order.

Watch now on NetNaijaBox

Every title page has a Watch now button. It opens the title on JustWatch for the country you choose, where you can see which official services offer it to stream, rent or buy. The button always opens the current JustWatch page, so you see the offers as they stand today. NetNaijaBox itself is a guide; the watching happens on the official services.

My list on NetNaijaBox

The My list button on every title page saves that title to a personal list kept in your browser, on the device you use. A good way to use it is to pick one title from each of the eight boxes and watch them in the order of the box rule, from the series box to the drama box. By the end you will have seen every kind of story the guide holds.

NetNaijaBox on a phone

On a small screen the menu moves behind the yellow button in the top corner, the board of boxes folds into two columns, and each row of posters arranges itself in fewer columns. Title pages, lists and the A–Z page all read comfortably on a phone.

Where the data comes from

Titles, synopses, cast, directors, genres, ratings, vote counts, running times, seasons and episodes come from TMDB, the community film and television database, as listed in October 2026. Ratings and vote counts change as viewers add their own, and with so few votes per title they can change quickly. The boxes themselves follow the rule described above and stay fixed.

Short guides on NetNaijaBox

Every part of the guide has a short help page. Begin with Start with NetNaijaBox, then read The box rule. Each box has its own guide: The series box, The heritage box, The crime boxes, The love box, The laugh box and The drama boxes. The numbers are in The figures, the people in Directors and stars, and the design in The look of NetNaijaBox.

For practical help there are Search tips, Watch now, My list, On your phone and Where the data comes from.

Frequently asked questions

For a first visit to NetNaijaBox, take one title from four boxes. Far from Home from the series box, Amina from the heritage box, The Black Book from the newer crime box and A Naija Christmas from the love box. Four evenings, four boxes, and a first taste of how wide Nollywood has grown.

Questions