Akinola Davies Jr.'s "My Father's Shadow" has passed $1 million in reported theatrical receipts — $1,102,976 as of July 28, 2026, according to Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. That's an uncommon threshold for an institutionally backed African feature launched on the major-festival circuit and released in the international specialty market — particularly for a feature debut set in a sub-Saharan African country. It's arguably even harder to reach in the post-pandemic period, when streaming has disrupted release strategies and theatrical distribution is increasingly being treated as an expensive, selective route to audiences.
To be sure, a definitive historical ranking would require a much wider title-by-title audit. Still, I'm comfortable with my assertions when placed in context; that being, institutionally supported feature films set on the continent directed by African/diaspora-based filmmakers, launched at the majors — Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Toronto notably — with grosses recorded by recognized, publicly available, international box office trackers, Box Office Mojo and The Numbers.
Neither source captures every territory or release, and a tracked film may have earned more than the totals recorded. "My Father's Shadow," for example, earned ₦25,780,750 in Nigerian cinemas between its 19 September 2025 release and 31 December 2025 — approximately $19,000 — according to distributor FilmOne Entertainment's 2025 Nigeria Box Office Yearbook, which uses Comscore data. That Nigerian gross is absent from both Box Office Mojo and The Numbers, as is often the case for distribution totals of African films in African territories.
The film briefly returned to Nigerian cinemas in June 2026, though one can reasonably infer that the second run didn't surpass the original release's earnings. In sum, its Nigerian box office — and likely any wider African release receipts (a month-long limited run in Nairobi, Kenya, for example) — is likely negligible relative to its cumulative worldwide box office.
Still, the most defensible thing to do in this scenario is to treat every figure here as a floor.
The table below shows how the global box office gross of "My Father's Shadow" compares with other high-profile feature films directed by African filmmakers that premiered at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Toronto, et al., in the post-COVID years. Each received a theatrical release in at least one market outside the film's primary African production country, with grosses recorded by Box Office Mojo and/or The Numbers.
Within this comparison group, "My Father's Shadow" has recorded almost 1.9 times the gross of "Dahomey," more than twice that of "Black Tea," and more than three times that of "Goodbye Julia." It ranks fifth among the 15 titles, behind "Cairo Conspiracy," "The Blue Caftan," "Eagles of the Republic" and "Everybody Loves Touda" — notably, all Arabic-language, North African stories.
"My Father's Shadow" opened in the United Kingdom and Ireland with £58,452 during the weekend beginning 6 February 2026, the largest opening among that week's limited releases. Box Office Mojo now records $438,645 from the United Kingdom. Given the large Nigerian and broader Anglophone West African diaspora in the UK, the numbers make sense, particularly when compared to the performance of other titles in the table. The same database records total United Kingdom grosses of $38,512 for "Dahomey," $26,877 for "Four Daughters" and $23,596 for "The Blue Caftan."
Interestingly, France was the largest recorded market for "My Father's Shadow." The film opened there on 25 March 2026 under the title "Un jour avec mon père." It sold 30,387 tickets across 96 cinemas during its first week, averaging 317 admissions per cinema. French industry data service CBO Box Office placed it among that week's stronger specialist releases. Box Office Mojo currently records $515,224 from France.
That total exceeds the database's recorded French grosses for "Dahomey" ($389,925) and "Black Tea" ($378,173). It's below the $1,482,019 recorded for "The Blue Caftan."
Taken together, an English-language feature debut set in a sub-Saharan African country that reaches more than $1.1 million in documented worldwide theatrical receipts after a major festival launch is noteworthy.