The retinue of the "King": will the punk monarch of Tsar Saltan win at the box office

The long weekend brought impressive film distribution results: over 2.8 million tickets were sold over the weekend, which is the best figure after the New Year holidays. Half of them were for Sarik Andreasyan's "The Tale of Tsar Saltan". Among the new products, The Beauty and The King and the Fool are in the lead. Forever" — they ousted the thriller "The Maid" from the top 3 of the national box office, where it stayed for a month. Read more about the weekend's results in the Izvestia article.

Sarik Andreasyan and "The Tale of Tsar Saltan"

The family hit based on the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" does not reduce its performance, it is an absolute leader in its niche. And the owner of the first place at the Russian box office. Over the long weekend, Skazka earned 570 million rubles, taking first place by a huge margin from all competitors. According to the results of almost two weeks of rental, its total box office is already about 1.4 billion rubles, now it is the fourth film of the year in terms of total collections. Ahead are Cheburashka 2, Prostokvashino and Pinocchio.

It won't be easy to catch up with them, given that at least another billion needs to be raised for this, but it's clear that the release is not going to slow down. He has an impressive average operating time per session — more than 15 thousand rubles, — the largest turnout in the top 10 box office (36 viewers per show on average). Seeing such success, cinemas will not take away the film's screenings. Last weekend, they accounted for 35% of the total, meaning every third session in the country was a "Tale of Tsar Saltan." Moreover, the wave of hate on the Internet does not interfere with the picture at all, and perhaps even helps it.

Running and jumping: "The King and the Fool" against the background of Cuba and Japanese sprinters

What to watch at the cinema this weekend

— In this case, a powerful brand of film is working: "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" is a great work by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, — says Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain. — Despite the contradictory reviews on the Internet, moviegoers want to make their own impression of the film. Plus, it's a spectacular costume movie that really suits the big screen.

"The Beauty" and "The King and the Fool. Forever" — the most successful releases of the weekend

Fresh films were finally able to move the holdovers, otherwise it was already beginning to seem that the audience didn't really want to watch something new. The second place of the box office belongs to the family adventure film "Beauty". Since its launch, it has earned 150 million rubles, with an audience slightly older than the "Tale of Tsar Saltan". The third place went to the punk musical "The King and the Fool. Forever", he has 110 million rubles, he was watched by more than 200 thousand viewers.

— "The Beauty" is a family movie with a rating of 12+, "The King and the Fool" works for a completely different, adult audience, the rating of the film is 18+, — explains Olga Zinyakova. — KISH is off to a good start for its genre — this release should attract fans of the TV series of the same name, and seeing this colorful and vibrant fantasy universe on the big screen is another incentive to go to the cinema.

At the end of the weekend, the film "The King and the Fool. Forever" became the most successful adult film release. This case showed how to attract an audience of online TV series to cinemas ‑ viewers who usually prefer to watch content at home, for free and without registration. Success can be achieved through word of mouth: millions of fans of the series will go to the movie based on recommendations from friends. The key condition is that cinemas should keep the number of screenings without reducing them in the following weeks of rental.

"The Maid" took the fourth place at the box office: over the weekend, the film collected 74 million rubles, and the total fees reached almost 1.3 billion rubles. The film has been among the super hits for more than a month, while "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" surpassed it in fees after the second weekend. Nevertheless, the operating time per session at the "Maid" is now comparable to that of the "Fairy Tale". "I'm glad that the thriller starring Amanda Seyfried and Sidney Sweeney has not slowed down after almost two months of rental, and collections are at a high level every week," Olga Zinyakova says of The Maid.

In fifth place of the Russian box office is the melodrama "Paradise under the feet of Mothers 2: A Letter to a mother" with box office receipts of 28 million rubles. At the same time, her operating time per session (the average number of viewers present) is higher than that of the "Maid". But Cheburashka 2 risks leaving the top 10: this time the picture was in ninth place with 25 million rubles of fees. But the total fees of the film exceeded an important milestone — 6 billion rubles. Thanks to this, it will take the second place at the box office in the entire history of Russian distribution. The first Cheburashka remains the leader.