Moving up: "Plagiator" started in the first place at the Russian box office

The number of viewers in Russian cinemas returned to the critical mark of 0.8 million tickets sold over the weekend. This indicator was used twice this year in May and now appears for the third time in the reporting of the EAEU system. This is largely due to the main novelty — Anton Megerdichev's comedy "The Plagiarist". She earned the most this weekend, 42 million rubles, but her sessions had an average of six viewers, and this is the lowest figure in the top 5. The first place was achieved due to the largest number of sessions — the fifth part of the entire weekend repertoire.

What is a "Plagiarist"?

Anton Megerdichev is a unique director, he is one of the few who knows how to combine authorship with genre structures, he inherits Soviet cinema audiences — and is usually more than rewarded for this. Having proven himself with the strong action game "Shadow Fight 2: Revenge" and the fantasy "Dark World", he suddenly began producing national hits one after another.

First, the disaster movie "Metro" (some still have a merch, a flash drive, "sewn" into a small blue trailer). Then there was the "Upward Movement," and this sports drama suddenly became the highest-grossing domestic film in the history of Russian distribution. Then this record was broken, but even now this picture is in the top ten at the box office with its 3 billion rubles. And in terms of the number of viewers (12 million), it is second only to Cheburashka. In 2022, Megerdichev brilliantly coped with the difficult material of Alexei Ivanov, releasing the wonderful blockbuster "The Heart of Parma". A director of great style, large scale and budgets.

The comedy "Plagiarist" is an experiment for Megerdichev, a step aside, perhaps a lull before another global storm. A modest picture, a joke on the theme of a time machine, where an unlucky young adventurer goes into the past to pass off the hits of the future as his own. Of Megerdichev's signature characters, there is only a superstar cast: Roman Evdokimov, Stasia Miloslavskaya, Aglaya Shilovskaya, Maxim Lagashkin, Marat Basharov, Irina Pegova, Vitaly Kischenko, Elena Panova — do not be surprised if many of them appear in completely different costumes and interiors in Megerdichev's next project.

Another thing is that summer comedy is a difficult release. Megerdichev has not had such first-weekend fees for a long time, only 42 million rubles. For comparison, the "Heart of Parma" first weekend cost 136 million rubles, the "Upward Movement" - 110 million, although then ticket prices were much lower. The average number of viewers at the "Plagiarist" sessions is six, the lowest in this weekend's top 5.

— "Plagiator" started cheerfully, thanks to a good sundress, the comedy will still have time to increase the box office, — says Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain. — The film has several trump cards at once — the creator of the latest Russian blockbusters, Anton Megerdichev, in the director's chair, well-known Russian hits in the soundtrack, a comfortable age limit of 16+, favorite actors in the frame and an entertainment format.

Who else was watched in Russian cinemas

Olga Zinyakova noted that there is no hope for a powerful surge in attendance during the holiday season, but there will definitely be films in the repertoire that will attract viewers. Among the potential hits are the sequel to the classic horror "Saw X", "Neurobatya" with Denis Vlasenko, the comedy "Heroes of Jokes", family films "My Dad is a Bear" and "Ivan Semenov. The first kiss", as well as the action game from the creators of "300 Spartans" "Red Dormouse". The latter name is well known to moviegoers, thirty years ago, in the wake of Conan the Barbarian, there was already such a film, one of the main roles was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sonya was played by Brigitte Nielsen. It failed miserably at the box office, but perhaps the audience will accept the new story about Sonya more favorably.

As for the other films in this week's top 5, there are no surprises, they are all "old-timers". With a slight lag behind the "Plagiarist" comes "Not alone at home 2", 38 million rubles. In third place is "For Grandpa's village", 32 million rubles. Fourth place — the dramedy "The Materialist" with Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, 21 million rubles. The only other novelty in the top 5 besides "Plagiarist" is the horror "Predatory Creatures", which earned 15 million rubles.

Two for the word: Evdokimov in "Plagiarist", Gosha Kutsenko in "Unsuspecting readings"

The main cultural events of the upcoming week in the Izvestia collection

He did not enter the top 10 and earned only 6 million rubles on the opening weekend of the festival superhit and participant of the Cannes Film Festival "Shroud". Izvestia published exclusive interviews with director David Cronenberg and starring Vincent Cassel, who has one of the best roles in his long career. But it didn't help the film at the Russian box office.

—Cronenberg, despite his status as a living classic, cannot boast of such popular and box office popularity in Russia as, for example, Villeneuve, Tarantino and Ricci," explains Olga Zinyakova. — The vagueness of the genre also prevented it — "Shroud" is not perceived by the viewer either as horror in its purest form, or as a drama. As a result, the movie acted as a festival — even the top ten did not submit to the novelty.

Let's also assume that the film could have been hindered by too large a "window" between the festival premiere and the rental. The fact is that "Shroud" was a hit at last year's Cannes Film Festival, more than a year has passed since then and a copy has long been leaked online by pirates. Of course, true connoisseurs of cinema watch Cronenberg only on the big screen and with original sound, but this time there were only about 10 thousand such connoisseurs in the whole country, so many tickets were sold for this unusual and profound tape.