Earned by the pen: "The Finist" surpassed "The Wizard" at the Russian box office
The fairy-tale blockbuster "Finist. The First Bogatyr" topped the Russian box office last weekend. He earned in the period from January 9 to 12, 299 million rubles, and its cumulative box office receipts have already exceeded 2.2 billion rubles. In second place fell the winner of the "New Year's battle" "The Wizard of Emerald City. Yellow Brick Road" - Igor Voloshin's picture brought in its asset 295.6 million rubles. In third place with a large gap is still "Christmas Trees 11" - 79.7 million rubles. "Izvestia" - on the results of the weekend at the domestic box office.
6.2 billion rubles - the final figure of holiday film distribution
The most successful release last weekend was the fairy tale "Finist. The First Bogatyr" by Dmitry Dyachenko. The movie about the most successful bogatyr of Belogorye earned over the weekend 299 million rubles, thereby increasing the total collections to 2.2 billion rubles.
The prequel trilogy "The Last Bogatyr" also shows high occupancy in movie halls, the average session on the first post-holiday weekend was attended by 23 people. Slightly behind "Finist" fairy-tale blockbuster "The Wizard of Emerald City", which until this weekend occupied the first line of the EAIS rating. Igor Voloshin's picture earned 295 million rubles and is approaching 3 billion rubles. At the same time, the sessions of "The Wizard" had slightly more than "Finist": 35 thousand against 31 thousand. Both pictures continue to show almost the same workload per session - 8.4 thousand for "The Wizard" and 9.6 thousand for "Finist".
- In the "New Year's Eve battle" releases of the same genre performed in synergy - the audience had time to attend the sessions of both films. Now, when interest in holiday novelties is still high, the films will continue to exchange audiences: those who have already appreciated "Finist" will watch "The Wizard of Emerald City," and vice versa. In this sense, these two projects have provided a choice for the family target audience and a longer-term cash inflow for cinemas," Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain, told Izvestia.
Both "Finist" and "The Wizard of Emerald City" became the drivers of the New Year's box office in Russia, which this year became a record for box office receipts, but not for attendance. We wrote more about what caused this here. In the official report of the Cinema Fund on the results of the January vacations indicated that the total box office receipts amounted to 6.2 billion rubles, attendance during the vacation period 97% provided by domestic films - they brought 6 billion rubles.
With a big lag closes the top three leaders 11th part of the franchise "Christmas trees" - 79.7 million rubles for the weekend and 1.1 billion rubles in cumulative collections. Still does not give up positions cartoon "Ivan Tsarevich and Gray Wolf 6", whose total collections reached 410 million rubles - the sixth line of the rating. At the same time, last weekend marked a significant drop in attendance at cinemas. So, in the holidays "Finist" favored more than 4 million viewers, this weekend their number decreased to 717 thousand. But, as experts remind, this is a traditional holiday lull, which will soon disperse the loud novelties of film distribution.
- Already high expectations for the films "Basil", "Red Silk" and, of course, "The Prophet. The Story of Alexander Pushkin." Given the new box office record of the results of the New Year's Eve battle and the results of this weekend, we can assume that the whole of January will show a better result compared to last year, - added the president of "KARO".
Fairy tales bore the audience
In the near future, film distribution awaits another billion-dollar film - collections of the screen adaptation of "Domovenok Kuzi" reached 949 million rubles. The film, as before, occupies the fourth line in the EAIS, it is still the attention of viewers is still high - an average of 27 viewers per session. Collecting box office and viewers three sequel "The Adventures of Paddington" and animated "Three Cats. Winter Vacation" - 10th and 11th, respectively.
The best foreign novelty of the week was the sequel to the action movie "Thief Hunt" starring Gerard Butler. The second part with the subtitle "Panther" mastered for its opening weekend more than 58 million rubles and took the fifth line of the rating. In addition to "Thief Hunt 2" in the top EAIS two more foreign novelties - the horror "Spell. The New Generation" and reached wide distribution in Russia "Megalopolis" Francis Ford Coppola.
- The holiday box office was full of family releases, but there were no 16+ films of comparable quality and scale in the repertoire. And there is a need for them, the increase of such content can stimulate the growth of attendance. That's why action and thrillers have climbed into the top, but if you look at their combined fees, it's not even a fifth of the fees of "Finist" and "The Wizard", - commented Olga Zinyakova.
"Spell. New Generation" earned in its first weekend 26.2 million rubles, landing on the seventh position. Much weaker was a long movie from the director of "The Godfather" - "Megalopolis" is located on the eighth line with 12.6 million rubles. At the same time, the total box office of the film is 30 million rubles, the fame of one of the most scandalous films of last year gives a sluggish "sarafan". The picture premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. Coppola calls "Megalopolis", his first film in the last 13 years, the pinnacle of his work, but critics in Cannes did not leave the picture a living place. The epic drama failed at the global box office: the $120-million project was released on September 25 and earned only $4 million over its first weekend in the U.S. Russian screenings will not improve the situation, but this is a rare opportunity to legally, albeit in Russian dubbing, on the big screen to watch a controversial film classic of American cinema, over which critics and cinephiles quarrel.
