All the best is in the children: the new "Manyunya" topped the Russian box office

The family comedy "Manyunya in the Village" earned 138 million rubles over the weekend and topped the Russian box office, displacing the melodrama "Love of the Soviet Union" in second place. In third place fell the fairy tale "Ognivo", the eighth film billionaire 2024 added to its total box office another 74.7 million rubles. The best foreign novelty of the week was "Heretic" with Hugh Grant, the horror earned almost 74 million and settled on the fourth line of the rating. Closes the top 5 biopic "Hands Up!", which is slowly but surely approaching 1 billion rubles. "Izvestia" tells about the results of domestic film distribution last weekend.

"Manyunya in the village" moved "Love of the Soviet Union"

Right from its opening week, a new family comedy "Manyunya in the Village" topped the Russian box office rating. This is already the second release about the red-haired unflappable girl Manyunya and her friends this year. Denis Gular's picture earned 138 million rubles for its first weekend, the most successful start among all four full meters of the franchise, born from a story by Narine Abgaryan.

The first "Manyunya", released in theaters in 2022, earned a modest 3.4 million rubles for its opening weekend, while the film's total box office receipts amounted to 12.2 million rubles. But the box office of the first picture can be heavily discounted: "Manyunya in the cinema" came out in the most turbulent period for the Russian film distribution after the departure of Hollywood majors from the country. "Manyunya in Moscow", the release of which took place in May 2024, marked 98.5 million rubles on the results of the debut weekend. So the new "Manyunya" is already claiming to be the highest-grossing installment of the franchise. The movie also shows the best attendance among the releases of the official distribution - on average 25 people go to the session.

The success of Gulyar's movie displaced the historical melodrama "Love of the Soviet Union" to the second line. Project directors Nikita Vysotsky and Ilya Lebedev earned for the second weekend 113.4 million rubles, the total collections of the picture is more than 330 million rubles. "Love of the Soviet Union" with an active promotional campaign shows modest dynamics. The average attendance of the picture - 17 people per session, this is less than the holdovers "Hands Up!", "Ognivo", "Substance" and "The Count of Monte Cristo", which go in the box office for more than a month.

- "Mannyanya" is already a recognizable brand, the previous parts of the franchise consistently collected a good box office. The new movie has the best first-weekend collection rate among its predecessors, the situation with the dispersal is the same as the third part of "Terrible". The box office that "Love of the Soviet Union" was counting on is indeed shared by both "Mannya" and successful holdovers like "Hands Up!" and "Ogniew." But the film is still, no doubt, will continue to work, - said in conversation with "Izvestia" president of the network of cinemas "Karo" Olga Zinyakova.

Foreign horror movies still do not slow down

The loudest foreign release of the week was the horror "Heretic" with Hugh Grant. The tape finished the debut weekend in fourth place with 73 million rubles, but has every chance to go higher. The tape has already been highly praised by international critics, and interest in Russia in the genre of horror is not waning. This, for example, was well demonstrated by the movie "Soul Collector" with Nicolas Cage, which earned about 400 million rubles in Russia.

The nearest high-profile release in this genre is the horror "Nosferatu" from the director of "Mayak" and "The Witch" Robert Eggers. The movie's screenplay is based on the 1922 German horror "Nosferatu, Symphony of Terror." The main roles in the project Eggers performed Bill Skarsgard, Willem Defoe, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. "Nosferatu" will be released worldwide on December 25, but is unlikely to be bought for our box office, as the international distributor is Universal Pictures, which has left the Russian Federation. Which will not prevent the horror from reaching Russian viewers in the format of pre-screening service.

- It is important that "Heretic" - a horror from the studio A24, which has already become legendary among fans of the "new wave" of horror films. This picture was another novelty, where the star of the world appears as a villain. Charming Hugh Grant and the keen interest of modern moviegoers to horror films will allow the movie to stay in the top for a few more weeks - commented Olga Zinyakova.

Slightly lower in the ranking EAIS dropped "Hands Up!" and "Substance" - on the fifth and seventh lines, respectively. Biographical drama about the popular musical group of the same name earned from November 14 to 17, 26 million rubles and is slowly but surely approaching a billion in cumulative box office receipts. Meanwhile, Frenchwoman Coralie Farja's "Substance" grossed just over 500 million rubles at the box office, cementing its status as the second highest-grossing foreign release of the year in Russia. Body horror with Dami Moore and Margaret Quolli took two months to reach this mark. The first place is still with "The Count of Monte Cristo", whose collections in Russia amount to 574.8 million rubles. Screen version of the novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas for the week fell from the sixth to the eighth line of the EAIS rating.

- The performance of "Substance", which overtook Guy Ritchie's "Ministry of Gentlemanly Affairs" with a powerful cast and the strongest promotional campaign, proves that excellent quality horror films can also set box office records along with family content and blockbusters, - added the president of "Karo".

At the same time rather weakly started dramedy "For the words I am responsible" with Oksana Akinshina and Nastassia Samburskaya - the ninth line and 17.9 million rubles. The movie tells how the star of motivational training Sveta Sun, played by Akinshina put in jail on charges of fraud. To defend herself in court, she needs petitions from those who benefited from the trainings. However, the only ones who can speak in her defense are her newfound acquaintances in the form of cellmates. It is possible that to compete for the audience of the film "I'm responsible for the words" became harder due to the return of unofficial screenings of the blockbuster "Venom: The Last Dance" in theaters. Platforms suspended Hollywood sessions for the period from November 7 to November 13 in the framework of agreements with the distributor "Central Partnership". Izvestia wrote more about it here.

Karo president Olga Zinyakova drew attention to the increasing attendance of cinemas and film collections, noting that this is a fairly typical picture for the fall period and the end of the year. Viewer attention, she said, will gradually grow and will reach its peak in the New Year holidays. The trend for movies to run long - it used to be more difficult due to the flood of Hollywood content and generally more big foreign releases with good advertising campaigns - remains relevant.