Palm mass: melodrama about a dog topped the rental

The most anticipated film of the year, "Red Silk," doesn't let the competition get close even a month after launch — last weekend it beat Mel Gibson himself and his new directorial work, "A Particularly Dangerous Passenger," starring Mark Wahlberg. And he remained in the top five, although it seemed that there were many candidates for his place among the prime ministers. However, two new releases still managed to squeeze out the holders: the first positions of the top "box office" were occupied by "Palm 2" and "Zhdun", paintings with famous actors and simple plots. Izvestia analyzes the results of the weekend in Russia.

"Palm 2" became a box office hit

As expected, the sequel to the retro drama "Palm", a domestic variation on the theme of "Hachiko", topped the box office this weekend. The first part was released in 2021 and immediately declared itself as the film that the audience needed after the pandemic. Back then, he collected 104 million rubles in the first weekend and showed almost no drop in the second, although it usually amounts to 50-70%. Moreover, after a good result of almost 350 million rubles in cinema, the film received not only a positive online distribution, but also performed admirably in other territories, including Japan, collecting even more abroad than at home.

The second "Palm Tree" is still showing the best result in relation to the original: in the first weekend it earned 146 million rubles, it was watched by more than 380 thousand viewers, it shows good experience for family cinema — more than 6 thousand rubles per session. It's good because 6+ sessions are usually staged in the morning and afternoon, when ticket prices are lower, so often, even with high attendance, the running time of such films is lower than that of 18+ films. This did not happen here.

If few people doubted the triumph of "Palma", then in the case of the family comedy "Zhdun", a light version of Spielberg's "Alien", there was no certainty. It seemed that the meme was outdated and firmly forgotten, and the other components of the release did not promise large fees. Nevertheless, the film finished the weekend in second place at the box office, earning 93 million rubles and bringing almost a quarter of a million viewers to the sessions.

"The children don't know Zhdun at all, so the creators hoped to bring their parents who grew up in Zhdun's time to the cinema," Olga Zinyakova, president of the Karo cinema chain, told Izvestia. — And they did it. Nostalgia is a good promotion tool, and the second place in the ranking confirms this.

It's great that distributors and film companies are looking for non-trivial approaches and heroes, the expert believes. Entering through memes in the story is almost the first on the market, she notes, and the results made it clear that the public is interested in this.

— We are sure that if the hero of the meme were fresher, it would be even more relevant for the viewer, — says Zinyakova.

We can assume that in the near future we will see a whole string of other films based on memes, because the producers may decide that this chicken is also capable of bringing them golden eggs. However, the legal aspect of this activity is not fully understood, because Zhdun has an author, the Dutch sculptor Margrit van Brevoort, and if she sues, the consequences for the producers can be catastrophic. However, so far no one has heard anything about her claim or any reaction at all.

In third place in terms of fees is the musical "The Prophet. The Story of Alexander Pushkin", the only release in the top ten that showed an operating time per session above 10 thousand rubles — it amounted to 11,359 rubles per session. Its box office this weekend amounted to 72 million rubles, and the total box office approached 1.5 billion rubles. He holds the third place at the box office this year and the first, if you do not take into account the New Year's hits "Finist" and "The Wizard of Oz".

"Red Silk" holds the lead in terms of operating time

The fairy tale "The Frog Princess" finished in fourth place at the weekend, with 66 million, and "Red Silk" finished in fifth place, with 34 million. But it is worth noting that the "Red Silk" has the second operating time after the "Prophet", almost 10 thousand rubles per session. This is not just a high indicator: it is also almost twice as high as that of Mel Gibson's fresh action film, his first directorial work in many years, "A Particularly Dangerous Passenger."

"The Red Silk holdover ruined the picture for this film,— explains Olga Zinyakova. — Silk still retains its position thanks to the sundress. Those who had already gone to a retrodetective with Milos Bikovic preferred the new Oscar-winning film by Mel Gibson. The potential of the painting was not bad, but she was unlucky with her rental neighbors, who successfully reach the box office.

Currently, "Red Silk" has a total of almost 630 million rubles, and judging by the high operating time, the film may well overcome the 700 million mark.

The rolling fate of the domestic festival hits "Daddy Died on Saturday" by Zaki Abdrakhmanova and "The Firebird" by Roman Mikhailov is difficult. None of them even made it into the top twenty at the end of the weekend, although all of them have the highest rating from critics and a lot of positive press.

— Independent low—budget films, as a rule, cannot afford to spend large sums on promos, - Olga Zinyakova explained. — And if there are no stars of the first magnitude in the cast, then only the audience that follows the festivals goes to them. And this is a very small segment. Mark Edelstein starred in "Firebird," whose career took off after "Anora," but here is a very small role. More attention is now being paid to his other project, "Summer is Coming."

"Summer is Coming" will be released this weekend, although it has a rather modest festival fate. But if the film can get at least into the top ten in terms of collections, it means that the name of Edelstein has really become a brand.