May Films: Russian films are ahead of Hollywood

The total fees of films on the first half of the May holidays reached 833.7 million rubles. Against 681.2 million rubles. A year earlier, while the number of spectators, albeit slightly, but decreased – from 2.2 million to 2.1 million people. The main cash desk was brought by the military drama “not listed in the lists”, but experts note, in general, cinemas did not have enough repertoire diversity that would help to attract more audience to cinema halls.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the data of a unified automated information system (EAIS) of the Film Fund from May 1 to 4 (the first half of the May holidays). From them it follows that the total box office of films during this time amounted to 833.7 million rubles. with a vision of 2.1 million people. The average ticket price was 439 rubles. A year earlier, total fees on the first half of the May holidays were at the level of 681.2 million rubles, then 2.2 million people visited the sessions. The average ticket price from April 25 to May 12, 2024 ranged from 353.4 to 365.7 rubles.

BOThe closest part of the repertoire on the first half of the May holidays this year was Russian releases, as a year earlier. On May 1–4, the military drama was “not listed in the lists” (at the box office from May 1, fees for a period-235.4 million rubles). In second place is the film “Kraken” from the TRITE studio (the beginning of the rental from April 17; 223.5 million rubles), closes the three continuation of the Dad franchise (April 3; 104 million rubles). The top 5 also included paintings for children: “Treasures of the Dwarves” (May 1; 80.8 million rubles) and “Deniskin Stories” (April 24; 60.5 million rubles).

From foreign releases in the official rental of 23 million rubles. Gathered the American horror “It. New Chapter ”, 17.3 million rubles – the animation“ Eyes ”(USA, Finland, Great Britain). As a year earlier, from May 1 to May 15, cinemas decided to abandon alternative rental (content that did not have an official copyright holder in the Russian Federation). At the same time, last year this led to a drop in the attendance of cinema halls (See “Kommersant” dated May 14, 2024). The “leaders” in average attendance were the Yakut sports drama “Diodorov. Against the current ”(21 people), the films“ Karuza ”(14 spectators) and“ Aldan ”(12 people).

Roman Isaev, CEO Roman Isaev, connected the increase in the amount of the Russian representative office in Comscore with the release of the painting “In the Lists”: “At the same time, Dad 2. Grandfather raised about 546 million rubles, while the adaptation of the novel by Boris Vasiliev –235.4 million rubles”. As a result, the box office of this year, although it is ahead of last year’s indicators, is still not satisfactory for cinemas, Mr. Isaev believes. The main reason is the lack of a diverse repertoire that could attract an audience from different segments to the halls.

Extremely Hollywood films have been released for the May holidays for a long time, the general director of Central Partnership (CPSH; the distributor of the film “In the Lists” was not listed ”) Vadim Vereshchagin:“ Five years have passed, and now the Russian product has appeared that is able to compete for the audience for the holidays. ” According to the top manager, cinemas have already earned more than 900 million rubles in aggregate for the first May holidays, this is the third result in history for this period. “Previously, this was only in 2018-2019, when Marvel studio produced its franchises,” Mr. Vereshchagin recalls. So far, the forecasts of the expected box office “were not listed in the lists” are not disclosed in the CPSh, but, according to their data, “the first weekend has already surpassed bold expectations, the second half of the May holidays will have to be ahead.”

Julia Yurasova