KENYAN-based film company, 234Media, is currently hunting for the rights to distribute Jamaican films.

But the firm believes that these films can earn significantly more at reggae concerts in Africa than at cinemas.

It shows an interesting business model utilising reggae to sell films in Africa.

234Media chief executive Dayo Ogunyemi told the Observer that he already secured the distribution rights for the recent ‘Marley’ film directed by Kevin McDonald for East and West Africa.

Currently he is in Jamaica negotiating the film rights including Ghett’a Life and Better Mus’ Come.

He explained that it is crucial to pair Jamaican films with reggae music.

“You would have to cross-pollinate,” Ogunyemi told the Observer on Saturday night at SoulHQ — an arts-focussed non-governmental organisation in Stony Hill, St Andrew. “In the beginning [the film] is not the draw, but afterwards you would have 10,000 people who would have seen that movie and that actor.”

Ogunyemi was invited by SoulHQ co-founders Afifa Harris and Georgia Love as part of monthly discussions on utilising the arts to affect development.

Ogunyemi, a lawyer by profession, indicated that the strategy to pair film with music comes within the context of relatively few cinemas in Africa and the dominant appeal of Hollywood.

234Media, an independent distributor which operates in the US, Kenya, Nigeria and UK, seeks blockbusters but also smaller films that connect with African audiences.

Ghett’a Life (2011), written, directed and produced by Chris Browne, follows the boxing dreams of an inner-city youth torn by violence. Better Mus Come (2010) written by Joshua Bratter, Paul Bucknor and directed by Storm Saulter, follows a gang within a warring community in 1970s Jamaica.

“We would be doing well to get 1,000 a week [at cinemas to watch these films]; whilst reggae artiste Tarrus Riley will bring in 10,000 people,” he stated. “[If] you show Marley or Better Mus Come for two hours for 10,000 people, we would allocate the US$20 they pay for the [concert] and US$4 for the movie and you’d get US$40,000 equivalent in two hours in one day, which you could never dream about doing with an American movie.”

In Jamaica, film forms a vital part of the creative industries, which mainly includes dance, music and advertising.

For 2012, the Creative Industries Unit at JAMPRO facilitated 83 investment projects of which three-quarters were in film. Capital expenditure associated with these projects totalled $1.1 billion employing over 5,000 temporarily, according to data from the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica.

Jamaican filmmakers augment earnings via distributing films into the Diaspora markets of North America and UK.

Earlier this month, Jennifer Holness, the producer of Home Again — a film about Jamaican deportees — indicated challenges to recoup the film’s near US$4-million budget. She said that earnings from its main Canada market were constrained by single-digit margins and depended on other markets to grow revenues.

Home Again, co-written by Holness and Canadian-Jamaican David ‘Sudz’ Sutherland, centres on three persons deported from Canada, the United States and England to Jamaica.

The film has already been released in Canada, Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) and Jamaica. It will open in the UK next month. The film’s team also hopes that its large financier, eOne Distribution, will cut a deal with a US distributor for its US release.

234Media indicates on its website that it identifies markets with large structural gaps and develops innovative business models to address these gaps.

“We then provide start-up financing, business development, and operational expertise through the launch cycle. We establish that these business models are viable and scalable and present significant long-term growth potential through replicable deployment across Africa,” states the site.