Attendance of cinemas in February 2025 fell by 34%

At the end of February, the attendance of cinemas amounted to 8.9 million people, which is a third less than the indicators of a similar month of 2024. Market participants note that in addition to the project “Prophet. The story of Alexander Pushkin ”in the box office there were no strong releases. They expect that at the end of the year the total box office will be reduced, since the reduction in attendance can no longer be compensated by increasing ticket prices.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the data of the Unified Federal Automated Information System (EAIS) of the Film Fund. From them it follows that the attendance of cinemas according to the results of February was lower than last year's values: 8.9 million people against 13.3 million in February 2024. The peak period this year came for a week on February 13-19, follows from the EAIS data: 2.8 million tickets were purchased (see infographic). This is lower than the indicators of a similar last year by 20%. The total box office also decreased, from 4.8 billion to 3.8 billion rubles.

A decrease in attendance in February is due to both the continuing outflow of the audience of cinemas towards streaming and the lack of repertoire diversity, the CEO of the Russian Comscore Office Roman Isaev believes: “Many viewers have nothing to watch in movie theaters.” According to him, last year there were stronger releases at the box office, for example, the film “Master and Margarita”, which for three weeks (from January 25 to February 14, 2024) held leadership in the box office. “This year this did not happen: the“ prophet ”because of its ambiguous format“ scared away ”most of the audience, as a result, only on the third weekend he overcame the threshold of 1 billion fees. It was previously predicted that it will collect 2 billion rubles. Cash desks, ”said Mr. Isaev.

“In fact, this (“ Prophet ”. – « Kommersant ») a musical film, even a drama, and such a genre is not so in demand among the audience in comparison with the « attractions » (includes fights and special effects. – « Kommersant ») and child-family content, ”the source on the media market believes. The Russian-Chinese project “Red Silk” with its “power and beauty” also did not live up to market expectations, and the rest of the releases showed even lower results, says Roman Isaev.

The market participants agree that before the May holidays at the box office there will be no new projects applying for 1 billion rubles. fees. Without them, cinemas are, in principle, it is difficult to lure the audience, according to Maxim Ostry, editor -in -chief editor of the industry publication “Bulletin of the film distributor” (BC). The number of potentially strong releases is preserved at a fairly high level, including due to foreign paintings, he said. Among them are “Monkey” (USA, Great Britain, Canada), “In Lost Lands” (Germany, Canada, USA), “Master” (Great Britain, USA). “Cinemas have something to work with, moreover, this repertoire is very diverse and can return the audience that there was nothing to watch on the winter holidays,” Mr. Ostry believes. At the same time, it is more logical to see all releases as support for headliners, he says.

As a result, the chance is high that the cinema fees of this year will be lower than in 2024, the interlocutor of Kommersant in the industry believes: “The first half of the year, obviously, will be weaker due to the lack of large releases in spring and summer. And they are not foreseen taking into account the lack of iconic Hollywood prime ministers in a legal rental. In addition, a decrease in attendance will be difficult to compensate for by increasing the cost of tickets, which are already quite expensive. ”

Julia Yurasova