Credit: Jamati

In part one of our series on Nollywood, we covered the history of the film industry in Nigeria. This week, we will be looking at the current movers and shakers expanding the seasoned industry into an international phenomenon. "What is sustaining the industry are the millions of people from Africa and the Caribbean, and African Americans who are willing to see movies about Africa." This is what Jide Thomas, a distributor and investor of Nollywood films, recently told Black Voices. Thomas owns the Web site African Movie Place, a online marketplace for African movies. But how does the second largest movie industry in the world continue to grow? What are its best business practices?

Credit: Vertigo Magazine

Robert Townsend's 1987 cult-classic film 'Hollywood Shuffle' was made on a budget of $100,000 and has grossed more than $5 million to date. By Hollywood standards, Townsend produced a major feature film on next to nothing. But if $100,000 is considered next to nothing, then $15,000 is actually nothing. That's about how much the average Nollywood film costs to make. Nollywood, a brave and resourceful industry, is part of the larger world of African cinema. The business and social lessons in this industry are useful and the potential immeasurable.

"Nollywood" is the name that has been coined for the prolific Nigerian film industry, which produces about 2,500 films per year -- most on shoe-string budgets. The average number of production days per film? Approximately 10. Nollywood films are popular throughout the entire African continent and quite marketable in the United States and Europe.

I can remember my auntie playing these "home videos" in her hair salon, while she and the rest of my aunties would be glued to the TV screen. I didn't know then that these movies would someday catapult the visibility of the Nigerian film industry to the world, with Oprah speaking about Nigerian cinema on her show nearly 15 years later.