Reel Love Movie Premier—Did Timini Hit Gold?
Actor Timini Egbuson’s movie Reel Love directed by Kayode Kasum premiered on Valentine's Day and we can't stop talking about how much the movie raked in already.
Yesterday February 14 2025 wasn't just another Valentine celebration, it was also the day actor Timini Egbuson will never forget in a hurry. Or ever will.
Every actor prays for the day their name gets stamped on the face of history with golden stencils, and yesterday, Timini strutted out into the premier of Reel Love, decked out in a red themed jacket with sequined sleeves, dark pants and shoes to match.
Word on the street—Timini Egbuson is the newest, bankable actor to beat. Reel Love is said to have earned a whopping (by Nollywood standards) N40.5 million yesterday. This success has to do with more than the Valentine season. Let's take a quick peek at the story of Reel Love.
Reel Love: The Plot
The story follows Tomide, a social media influencer and entrepreneur, Rachel, who meets and promptly becomes instant adversaries. Heeding his fiancee Imani’s advice, Tomide and Rachel enter an arrangement to pretend to be lovers to boost Tomide's online fame. You can guess the rest—the two begin to fall in love, Imani breaks up with Tomide, and things get out of hand when a whistleblower releases damaging information about Tomide.
The story is fun, an almost run-of-the-mill, paperback heartbreak story with twists here and there to fit the Nigerian romance pathos. It is a story that appeals to social media romance enthusiasts. Gen Z fan bases will also find their effervescing on-and-off love lives very well represented.
Timini Today
As of today, Timini goes from playing leading roles to producing his own movie, and in his first try, he hits an enviable figure only behind Funke Akindele’s Everybody Loves Jenifa which earned N46.5 million on it's first day (December 13, 2024).
We first meet his boyish, handsome face in the MTV drama series Shuga where he played Tobi, then in Tope Oshin’s Fifty (2017) where he played Jamal. Timini hasn't stopped spicing screens since then. In A Tribe Called Judah (2023) he played Pere Judah. The industry has since shown appreciation for this dashing actor's talents. In 2017 he won Best of Nollywood Award, in 2019 he won The Future Awards Africa, a prize for acting. For most popular actor, he won the 2021 Net Honors.
Reel Love boasts of a star-studded ensemble—Funke Akindele, Dakore Akande, Muyiwa Ademola, Shaffy Bello, Bimbo Ademoye, Efa Iwara, Atlanta Bridget Johnson, Hermes Iyele, and Lillian Afegbai all make an appearance in this film.
Considering the metrics we have, and in my opinion, Timini hit gold with this film. Fans can ride the wave with him as Reel Love sets the tone for more films from the star himself, and an exciting, lucrative Nollywood year.