The business consultant explained the growth of cinema revenues in early 2026

The revenue growth of Russian cinemas in early 2026 was mainly due to higher ticket prices and successful premieres, while audience interest has not yet returned to previous levels. Ilya Rusyaev, a business consultant and founder of the Rusyaev Club business community, told Izvestia about this on April 15.

As the expert noted with reference to the data of the EAIS Cinema Foundation, in January–March 2026, 47.9 million viewers visited cinemas, and box office receipts amounted to 23.7 billion rubles, which is 22% more in audience and 37.4% more in revenue compared to the same period last year. At the same time, as Rusyaev emphasized, the indicators are still below the level of 2023.

Rusyaev said that the main driver of growth was the New Year's campaign, when fees exceeded 10.3 billion rubles, and the number of tickets sold reached about 19 million. Major family premieres and long weekends played a significant role.

"The combination of a long weekend, good weather and the simultaneous release of three major family releases worked. But it's not just about January. Other notable premieres were added to the New Year's hits, and three foreign films entered the top 10 at once," he said.

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The expert added that one of the foreign paintings collected more than 1 billion rubles, which indicates the continued demand for diverse content. According to him, the revenue growth is also associated with an increase in ticket prices, which reached an average of 496 rubles.

"The box office is growing faster than attendance, and this is both good and disturbing news. It's good for network revenue, but alarming for long-term traffic: ticket prices rising in the absence of a wide average layer of films may at some point alienate some of the audience," the specialist explained.

He noted that the market remains dependent on a limited number of major premieres, and one film can generate a significant share of fees. By the end of the year, as the expert added, revenue is expected to grow to 55-58 billion rubles, but a steady recovery in attendance remains questionable.

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Dmitry Parshin, general producer of Klaxon Production Studio, said on April 8 that the fairy tale genre has become the dominant trend in Russian animation, and this is due to the stage of development of the industry, and not an accidental trend. According to him, over the past five years, from 40 to 60% of full-length animation projects in Russia are based on folklore, literary classics or author's fairy-tale worlds.

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