Dance while you're young: "Ballerina" topped the Russian box office

Full and unconditional leadership — Ballerina earned more than 120 million rubles in Russia at the opening weekend, while its closest competitors earned 100 million less. The action game from the John Wick universe, and even with John Wick himself among the actors, should remain the leader of the box office in the coming weeks, because there are no comparable releases planned. At the same time, "Ballerina" does not have pre-show service, but is completely official, with a rental certificate. In second place — "Kraken", in third — "Bigfoot". Izvestia analyzes the results of the film weekend.

How much did the "Ballerina" earn

No one says why Russian distributors refused to use the original version of the title "From the world of John Wick: Ballerina" for Russia. But they won't admit it themselves. There are rumors in the industry that this was done in order not to attract the attention of foreign media to the fact that major Hollywood projects are rolling out in Russia. An indirect proof of this strategy is the scandalous publication by Variety during the Cannes Film Festival. It said that Lionsgate was the first major studio to break the moratorium on Hollywood at the Russian box office by releasing Ballerina. However, the studio itself has not commented to Variety (or anyone else). this is a decision, and the film's stars, including Keanu Reeves, did not participate in the film's promo and did not give interviews to the Russian media, let alone attend the Moscow premiere. In any case, all this is just speculation, and on the poster of "Ballerina" there is still a note "John Wick Universe" — in small print, and in this case it does not look like part of the name, but like a logline.

Why this preface? Perhaps because "Ballerina" could have worked better. Indeed, the figure of 120 million rubles looks impressive. But EAIS says that the film had 41% of the screenings in Russia, meaning cinemas were literally flooded with this release. And at the exit, the average session attendance is ten people. The same Kraken, which is in second place with 20 million rubles, has an average attendance of 13 people. And the average operating time is also higher than that of the "Ballerina".

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Take the movie "John Wick 4", which was released, by the way, in 2023 and also officially, and we will see that in his first weekend the attendance at the session was 27 people. And John Wick 3 had 31 viewers in 2019. What does this mean? Apparently, the fact that the success of "Ballerina" in the absence of bright competitors is far from as unconditional as it seems from the outside.

— If you look at the overall dynamics of this weekend, the action movie with Ana de Armas showed the most striking result among other rental releases, — says Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain. — It has almost five times more viewers than Kraken. Considering the traditional summer lull, the film has collected a decent box office. "Ballerina" received mostly positive criticism and, given the lack of major action games in the near future, will continue to collect at least the entire month of June.

It's true, there are no competitors, and, say, the film has a chance to make good money in the coming holidays, if only the potential audience goes to the cinema instead of downloading the novelty from pirates. However, to tell the truth, the film didn't really shoot in the USA either. He earned $25 million there in his first weekend, losing the first place to the remake of the Disney hit "Lilo and Stitch", although it was already in its third week at the box office. And the latest "Mission Impossible" earned $64 million in its first weekend. The total fees of "Ballerina" in the world amounted to a little more than $50 ml, which is also not a very high result. Another thing is that in other countries, "Ballerina" has someone to compete with, but we have no competitors, so we could count on higher numbers, given both the fan base of the universe and the Russian motifs in the plot, which are described in detail in our review.

Who else is among the leaders of the Russian box office

In second place, as already mentioned, is Kraken with 20 million rubles. He is followed by "Bigfoot", 16 million rubles. Fourth place — fantasy "Nightingale vs Muromets", 15 million rubles. The cartoon "Heroes" closes the top five.: The uninvited guest", he has only 200 thousand rubles less than the "Nightingale". The most successful new feature this weekend was "The Life of Chuck," starring Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and even Mark Hamill, aka Luke Skywalker. By genre — fiction. The box office of the first weekend is 12 million rubles. One could say that in competition with Ballerina, this is to be expected, but still it is not entirely true. Films have different audiences. "The Life of Chuck" is designed for a more mature audience, it's a more subtle movie.

The cinemas gave him too few shows — ten times less than "Ballerina". And the distributor didn't seem to invest much in advertising, realizing that he would have to compete with John Wick anyway.

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There are a lot of Chinese people at the shows in Moscow, they watch the Russian version.

Everyone has lost from this situation, and now cinemas are waiting for new domestic family releases to fill the halls with adults with children. Artek will be released during the holidays. Through the centuries" with Mikhail Galustyan and the almanac "Three heroes. Not a day without a feat 2".

"Both projects are sequels of established brands,— notes Olga Zinyakova. — And "Three heroes", and "Artek. Through the Centuries" have a fantasy, fairy-tale orientation. These releases will compete for a related audience, while the target audience of "Ballerina" is more mature. But it is the 6+ rating that can play into the hands of the "Heroes" and "Artek", which will allow them to compete with the John Wick universe action movie for the first place.

It should be noted that the intriguing western "Tornado" with Tim Roth will also be released during the holidays, but so far everything is going to the fact that the release also does not have enough advertising to attract a wide audience. Although it was always difficult in the summer.