Screen illusions: adventurous action game has collected more than 1.3 billion rubles in Russia

A gap of almost 200 million rubles from its closest competitors — with this result, "The Illusion of Deception 3" finished its third weekend in Russia. The triquel of the popular hit turned out to be the most successful in the history of the series: the first and second films each collected a million, the third already has 1,387 million rubles, of which 226 million this weekend. Not a single novelty could compete with the heavyweight. Izvestia analyzes the current top of the Russian box office.

Why is "The Illusion of Deception 3" so successful

Last week, several bright releases were released domestically, but there were no surprises in the case of them — at least pleasant ones. The top ten Russian box office leaders are "The Illusion of Deception 3" and all the other films, no matter when they were released. The leader has 226 million rubles, the nearest competitor, Letters to Santa Claus, has 45.5 million rubles, while the rest, of course, have even less.

Encouraged by the successful launch, cinemas are in no hurry to remove the "Illusion" sessions and give them to others, so the picture had more than 20% of the total number of all weekend screenings. And — this happens very rarely — at the same time, she still has the highest operating time among all sessions, almost 13 thousand rubles. And this is despite the fact that the age limit for the triquel is higher than it was before: 16+ versus 12+, but this clearly does not frighten the audience.

"The Illusion of Deception 3 is the leader in four parameters," Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain, said in an interview with Izvestia. — This is a big Hollywood movie that has been officially released here. This is a familiar and beloved story. Plus, there's a great cast here, and the release is propelled by a nice sundress. The film will stay at the top for at least another couple of weeks.

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By the end of this week, "The Illusion of Deception 3" should already be in the top 5 box office of the whole year, and maybe even in the top 3, second only to the New Year's megahits "The Wizard of Oz" and "Finist. The first hero". And the weather will help people to look for vivid impressions in warm cinemas, which is good for rental.

Jennifer Lawrence starred in an erotic thriller

The second and third places at the Russian box office are shared by film tales. On the second one is a very recent one, "Letter to Santa Claus." Distributors have bet on the sex symbol of the 1990s Natalia Oreiro, the star of the Argentine television series "Wild Angel". Her image was actively used on posters and trailers of the film and eventually brought success to the release, albeit relative in comparison with the "Illusion of Deception". The "Letter" earned 45.5 million rubles.

In third place is Masha and the Bears, 41 million rubles. At the same time, it should be said that in fact this release is more successful than "Santa Claus", because this fairy tale was released last weekend and then collected 80 million rubles, and now its potential viewers have simply divided it between "Masha" and the more recent "Santa Claus". But the painting already has 132 million rubles in its piggy bank, this is not a breakthrough, of course, but still the symbolic mark of 100 million rubles has been passed. Read in Izvestia an interview about this film with Zoya Berber, the sexiest female robot in our cinema since "Act, Manya!" with Yulia Menshova. However, in "Bears" she has a completely different image — a loving mother, and not the super soldier Anna Nikolaevna.

The fourth place went to the free film adaptation of Evgeny Vodolazkin's novel "The Aviator". 39 million rubles means that not all of the reading country has accepted the changes in the plot and character system. Hence the two-fold drop in fees compared to the premiere weekend. Until 2020, this was the norm, but now, with a shortage of releases, this is not very good news.

But the metaphysical thriller about postnatal depression "Die, my Love" feels great. At first glance, he only has the fifth place and 38 million rubles. But his operating time per session is twice as high as that of those who collected more. Translated into a normal language, this means that there are few sessions, but the halls are full.

— The film's production is one of the biggest this weekend — there is clearly interest in the film, — agrees Olga Zinyakova. — First of all, because of the central acting duo — in Russia, Robert Patisson and Jennifer Lawrence are widely known as the main actors of two cult franchises, Twilight and The Hunger Games. But the 18+ marker, the festival trail and the theme prevent a more dense presence in the schedule.

Indeed, when cinemas hear that the premiere of the film took place in Cannes, they may get nervous: what if this is not an entertaining movie, a movie "not for everyone"? There are countries where the festival echo becomes a catalyst for success, and there are those where the audience is more distrustful of auteur films.

"Die, my Love" is indeed not a standard erotic (and very explicit at times) thriller, but Jennifer Lawrence played the best role here in her already quite voluminous career, and Pattinson has not had such a movie for a long time. Of course, this is an event film for our rental, but if cinemas do not believe in it, then the picture will gather the main audience online, and everyone will lose from this.

Among the novelties of the weekend, it is worth highlighting the unusual comedy "There is only a Moment", made in the tradition of Soviet tragicomic films about cinema. In today's issue of Izvestia, Igor Ugolnikov, its producer and co-star, talks in detail about the film, and on the eve of the premiere, we talked about it with Daniil Popov, the lead actor.

The audience of the film is rather used to watching such a movie on TV, and "There is only a Moment" will definitely take its place in the clip of their favorite military comedies, but for now you can still have time to see it on the big screen.