He had his time: "August" became the most successful film of the fall

The free-form film adaptation of Vladimir Bogomolov's "August" collected 184 million over the past weekend, and the total box office increased to 776 million rubles. As a result, the release surpassed the previous record holder of this fall, "Dracula" by Luc Besson, who now has a total collection of 722 million rubles. The war drama can now enter the top five highest-grossing films of the year, but it may take several weeks for it to do so. She won't have any competitors in the near future.

Well, let's ask the cashier.

For three consecutive weekends in a confident first place, we can now say with confidence that "August", albeit with the help of "Dracula", saved the Russian film distribution. Until mid-September, cinema attendance remained at critically low levels, even setting an anti-record, the lowest turnout in the last three years. But — "Dracula" started, "August" "shot" a week later, and now the numbers are quite decent, albeit far from ideal. Last weekend, more than 1.5 million viewers bought tickets, the last time such figures were in early June. And a third of these tickets were purchased for the August sessions.

184 million rubles and the first place in the top ten of the weekend were achieved by the film, which was at a significant disadvantage in relation to the novelty "The First on Olympus". Counting on the success of the latter, cinemas allocated him more than 18 thousand sessions, and "August" was left with only 16 thousand, believing that attendance would decrease in the third weekend. But in the end, the running time of the sessions was the highest for all this time, more than 11 thousand rubles, and the attendance of 25 people per session was the highest among all weekend films.

— The film works great as a spectacular blockbuster, it has action, suspense and a bit of mysticism, — says Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain. — This is exactly the kind of paintings that viewers go to watch on the big screen, and there is a shortage of such content designed for an adult audience. Both the stellar cast and the extensive marketing campaign worked as a box office booster. The release has every chance to master a billion.

August is currently in seventh place among all releases in Russia for 2025. This week, he will bypass "Grandfather's village" (851 million rubles) and approach "Kraken" (1133 million rubles). If it overtakes "Kraken", it will enter the top five most successful films of the year. The film has at least the remaining October for all this, and there are no comparable releases planned right now.

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The "First on Olympus" with Gleb Kalyuzhny finished in second place. It collected 108 million rubles, which is much less than "August", although, as already mentioned, cinemas believed in this release and gave it the maximum number of sessions on its opening weekend. But they overestimated the possibilities of the painting. Its average attendance is two times lower than that of "August". And the production, too, although one of the trump cards of the promotional campaign was that Gleb Kalyuzhny took time off during his military service to work on the painting and its premiere, which the secular media actively practiced.

— The attendance of the film is impressive — it attracted more than 200 thousand viewers, which allowed it to gain a foothold on the second line of the rating, — Olga Zinyakova recalls. — Gleb Kalyuzhny's dismissal for the premiere certainly fueled interest in the film, but this is not enough for an unconditional leadership at the box office.

Third place — "Dracula", 82 million rubles. Luc Besson's painting went above any expectations, the audience continues to go to it, its average operating time is the highest over the weekend, which is understandable: a picture with a rating of 18+ is shown at evening sessions with expensive tickets.

The fourth and subsequent places are shared by releases that are far behind the leaders in fees. The novelty "Burglar from the roof" turned out to be the most successful among them, it has 31 million rubles. Next are, respectively, "(Non)artificial intelligence" (fifth place, 28 million rubles), "Animal Train" (sixth place, 24 million rubles), "Long Walk" (seventh place, 21.9 million rubles), "Driving crazy" (eighth place, 21.6 million rubles).

— Ron Howard's thriller "Eden" with a bright cast featuring Jude Law, Ana de Armas and Sidney Sweeney did not perform well, — says Olga Zinyakova. — The rental date of the film was forced to be postponed twice, which confused the viewer, affected marketing and PR opportunities and, as a result, the fees. The fantasy romcom "You're Driving me Crazy" with Mila Ershova worked within the genre and could not compete with the holdovers, although it found its audience.

In a few days, Bakur Bakuradze's art drama Lermontov, which opened the Mayak Film Festival in Gelendzhik just a few days ago, will be released in Russia. They will also release "Eddington," the hit of the Cannes Film Festival starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone, a black comedy about how a southerner lost his mind and what followed. More information about the film is available on the Izvestia website in the report from Cannes.