Points of view: "Shelter" couldn't beat "The Maid"

The thriller "The Maid" starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried didn't just end the weekend in first place at the Russian box office. These days, it has also crossed the billion mark, which was not even in the wildest forecasts of market participants. The favorite of the weekend, the action movie "Asylum" with Jason Statham, on the contrary, worked modestly and took second place, losing to "The Maid" in all respects. Cheburashka 2 is slowly losing ground, but Marty the Magnificent suddenly broke into the top 5 box office leaders for the first time since its release. Izvestia analyzes the results of the Russian film weekend.

How the "Maid" dealt with the "Shelter"

The main surprise of the weekend is the results of the films "The Maid" and "Asylum". Everything suggested that "Asylum" should take the first place in the Russian box office. Firstly, "The Maid" was released in mid—January, during which time even super hits usually give way to "young" releases. This is normal, and no one would have raised an eyebrow.: "The Maid" has already worked beyond all expectations. Although, it would seem, a rather modest thriller without a trail of world fame. Secondly, Jason Statham has been loved by us for a long time, for women he is a sex symbol, for men he is something like a good old buddy with whom you can sit, have a beer, and then go and kick some scum together. And in the action movie "Asylum", a wonderful young Irish actress Bodhi Ray Bretnack also played, who is already predicted to have a great and glorious career by the world's film stars.

The results were shocking. "The Maid" ended the weekend with 137 million rubles, and its total box office over the weekend exceeded one billion. And the "Shelter" did not just end up in second place with a much more modest 95 million rubles. All the other indicators are also discouraging. The "Maid" has an average operating time of 16 thousand rubles per session, while the "Shelter" has two times less, 8 thousand rubles. The "Maid" has 26 spectators in the hall, and the "Shelter" has 14. And after all, the cinemas relied on Statham, "Asylum" had one and a half times more screenings than "The Maid", but she was still ahead.

"Shelter started within expectations, but it lost some of its audience," says Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain. — The men's room had to be shared with Greenland 2 and the film Paradise under the Feet of Mothers 2. The other, the women's room, went to The Maid. The success of this film once again confirms the role of the female audience as the engine of the box office. "The Maid" has become an example of what girls need in movies: a good cast, a love line, a sustained rhythm with a focus on the plot, the relevance of the topic and the quality of the product. "Sarafan" made up the lion's share of the film's promotion. The "Sanctuary", which was aimed at men but was potentially interesting to women thanks to Statham, could not cope with this element.

Of course, Statham is a stubborn man and is not used to giving up. Let's see, maybe he'll have a nice sundress by next weekend, too, and then the cash register will grow too.

Cheburashka 2 did not catch up with the first part

The third place was taken by Cheburashka 2, which is still the main family release of the repertoire. This time he collected 72 million rubles, but it is clear that the second part will remain the second in terms of cash. Now the total fees of the sequel have almost reached 6 billion rubles, this is not just a high result, but after the first Cheburashka, the highest in the history of domestic distribution. Success. The first part alone has 6 billion 787 million rubles. And if we compare the number of viewers, 22 million for the first film and 11.6 billion for the second, it becomes clear that the high result of the sequel is associated with an increase in ticket prices. Yes, the price has decreased somewhat since the New Year holidays, but now it is clear that there should be no illusions.

— The average price will remain somewhere at 500 rubles, - Olga Zinyakova said. — It is worth noting that growth has been deliberately restrained and prices in cinemas are rising much more slowly than in other sectors of the economy. And the networks offer a lot of opportunities and promotions so that all movie lovers can afford to go to the cinema.

It's true, and the price of a ticket to a Moscow cinema doesn't differ much from the cost of a cup of coffee in a regular metropolitan coffee shop, but there aren't many people going to the cinema. For example, there were 1.5 million people this weekend. And, for example, in the first weekend of February 2019, with which any figures of modern Russian rental are most often compared, it was 2.4 million people. And in general, one and a half million over the weekend was considered a very bad figure, it could be in the summer lull or in the case of a deafening failure of a film. But this was definitely not a normal situation. In December 2025, there were about the same number of viewers twice over the weekend, and in summer and early autumn, attendance fell to 0.7 million people. This is partly due to ticket prices, despite the fact that cinema is still practically the most affordable form of leisure.

Marty is great

Concluding the review of the top 5 Russian box office, let's say that a pleasant surprise was the appearance of Josh Safdie's movie "Marty the Magnificent" starring Timothy Chalamet. He finished next to the melodrama "Paradise under the feet of mothers 2: A letter to a mother", "Marty" collected 36.7 million rubles, "Paradise" — 35 million rubles. Strictly speaking, the success of "Marty" is relative, in fact, the film's collections are going down compared to the previous weeks of distribution, but since the rest of the films did poorly, "Marty" turned out to be in the lead.

"Thanks to the good sundress, the incessant discussion about the film's promotional campaign and Timothy Chalamet's Oscar nomination, the audience is still going to the cinemas," Olga Zinyakova stated. — The film is either praised to the skies or criticized — there is no average opinion. For an audience that appreciates good movies, this is a lure: you don't want to stay away.

They shook the old days: Statham and Khabensky on their way to a wide audience

What to watch at the cinema this weekend

But Olga Buzova's provocative comedy "Oli's Ravioli" did not become such a bait. The film ended the weekend at around 28.3 million rubles, with an average of seven viewers at its sessions.