Domovoy chart: new adventures of Kuzi and Nafani are in the lead in the box office

The sequel "Domovenka Kuzi" finished its first weekend at around 271 million rubles. The film received almost 40% of all screenings in the country, but it also showed the highest attendance in the top — an average of 22 viewers per session. The rest of the new products could not even break into the top five, and successful holders stopped at the turn of 50 million rubles. The weakest results were shown by the modern version of the tale of Aibolit — the film "Doctor Gaf" starring Sergei Garmash. Izvestia analyzes the latest figures of the domestic box office.

"Fabulous" showdown

"Domovenok Kuzya" was released at the end of 2024 and earned 222 million rubles in its first weekend (hereinafter referred to as the EAIS data). The sequel earned 271 million rubles in its debut weekend, although if you look at the number of viewers in both cases, the difference in success will not be so obvious. The original film was watched by 628 thousand at the start, the sequel — 666 thousand. Nevertheless, the audience growth is obvious, and at the same time, "Domovenka" had quite strong competitors from the same niche this time. He left everyone far behind.

"Domovenok Kuzya has long been a recognizable brand," Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain, explains the results of the release. — The older generation remembers the animated series of the same name and the computer game, which encourages the whole family to go to the cinema. The sequel had a better opening weekend than the first part, and there is every chance of box office growth, although other similar projects are actively competing for the audience.

Last week, it seemed that the fight would be much more intense. Simultaneously with "The Housekeeper", "Doctor Gaf" was released, a modern version of the Aibolit fairy tale. The main role in the film was played by Sergey Garmash, whose Cheburashka 2 had attracted millions of viewers a few months earlier.

It's unclear what went wrong, but in the end, Dr. Gaf didn't even make it into the top 5 of the Russian box office. Sixth place is also a result, but attendance was extremely low: an average of six viewers per session. In the top ten box office leaders of the weekend, no release had such a weak indicator.

It can be noted that Gafa had three times fewer sessions, but the film ranked second after Kuzi in terms of its number. Therefore, it was possible to count on at least a higher position at the box office.

—Dr. Gaf couldn't compete with Domovenka Kuzya, which has a head start on the first part and a more active marketing campaign," Zinyakova believes. — "Doctor Gafa" has Sergey Garmash, but "Domovenka Kuzi" has Sergey Burunov, Garik Kharlamov and Polina Gagarina — their starry ensemble is more attractive to the moviegoer.

Korney Chukovsky's "Dr. Aibolit" is often seen as a kind of "relative" of Dr. Dolittle from Hugh Lofting's books. This is not a direct retelling, but the characters are really comparable — about the same as Pinocchio and Pinocchio: the similarities are obvious, although the plots and cultural context differ.

Curiously, in 2020, a film about almost the same hero, "The Amazing Journey of Dr. Dolittle," failed at the box office with a loud bang. The main role in it was played by superstar actor Robert Downey Jr.; Antonio Banderas and Michael Sheen starred with him, and British actress Jessie Buckley, who recently won an Oscar for Hamnet, embodied Queen Victoria.

The painting was then called one of the first major failures of the decade. Formally, its worldwide collections amounted to about $ 250 million, which in itself looks solid, but with a production budget of about 175 million and significant marketing costs, the studio suffered serious losses.

"The kid" brought back the viewer

In second place in the domestic box office is the thriller "The Heir", which collected 50 million rubles. The gap from the leader turned out to be huge, but the drop in box office compared to last weekend was minimal: it was 61 million, it became 50 million. Fees are usually reduced by two or even three times. The third place was taken by "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" with a result of about 33 million rubles.

The fourth place was taken by the Russian comedy "The New Mother-in-Law". The fate of the film for the third week in a row does not look too optimistic. He came out during the March holidays, and he had a magnificent painting for that and the following weekends.: first, 22% of all sessions in the country, then 19%, this time it's already 9%, which is still more than the "Heir" and "Tales of Tsar Saltan". But the audience stubbornly does not want to go to this movie. At the start, she had 13 viewers per session, then nine, this time due to the reduction in shows, she got 10, but that's still not enough. Among the top 5, the painting has the lowest operating time. Olga Zinyakova believes that "the release lacked a good sundress," and it seems that this is indeed the case.

But with the sundress, everything is in order for the military action "Kid" — fifth place and 30 million rubles. Either Gleb Kalyuzhny's fan base turned out to be so large, or the positive feedback from the first audience worked, but 52 thousand tickets were bought for him last weekend, and 67 thousand this weekend. And for a non-family movie, he has excellent attendance, 17 people per session. It's really interesting to follow the fate of this release, and if the audience doesn't get any smaller next weekend, we can already say that we really liked the film, without discounts on advertising or the name of the actor in the title role.