It doesn't hurt to wait: Kommersant soared from third place to the top of the rental

In the second week at the domestic box office, Kommersant with Alexander Petrov sharply took the lead. He moved from the third line of the box office to the first, earning 97 million rubles over the weekend and shifting the military drama "Angels of Ladoga" to the second. The best novelty of the weekend was the film "Seven Versts before Dawn" about the feat of a simple peasant Matvey Kuzmin during the Great Patriotic War. The film debuted in the box office from the third place, earning 62 million. Izvestia - on the results of the weekend in the cinema.

Dobronravov played a peasant who became a hero

On the long May Day weekend, cinema attendance in the Russian Federation finally began to grow after a lull of several weeks and reached 1.3 million viewers. However, it is curious that several high-profile premieres could not compete with the releases of last weekend.

The best novelty was the biographical war drama "Seven Versts before Dawn", but even that debuted at the box office only from the third line of the box office. Over the weekend, the film earned only 62 million rubles. Although, perhaps, next weekend, dedicated to the celebration of the Great Victory, the picture with an emphasis on history will still take its toll.

— The film is based on the true story of the heroic deed of a Soviet peasant during the Great Patriotic War — such stories are especially popular on the eve of May 9th. In addition, a good cast gathered in "Seven Versts before Dawn": Fedor Dobronravov, Maria Shukshina, Viktor Dobronravov, Artyom Bystrov, Oleg Gaas, Vyacheslav Chepurchenko. These actors made it possible to attract different age groups to cinemas, which expanded the audience," Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain, told Izvestia.

The plot is dedicated to the feat of a simple peasant Matvey Kuzmin. The old man was already over 80 when, in the early years of the war, the Nazi invaders occupied his native village in the Pskov region. The courage in the hitherto quiet old man, whom even the neighbors considered unsociable, showed up unexpectedly — at a crucial moment. The German commander demanded to show his squad the way to the Soviet rear in order to attack. Kuzmin agreed, but cheated: he spent the whole night wandering off-road with the Nazis and brought them under machine-gun fire from the Red Army. For this, he was immediately killed by the enemy. Matvey Kuzmin was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Zhdun, Litvyak and company

This is not the only premiere on the theme of the Great Patriotic War. The film Litvyak— about the legendary pilot Lydia Litvyak, who has shot down more than one enemy plane, was released. The tape is located only on the seventh line of the box office, seriously lagging behind the leaders in fees - it has only 36 million rubles on its account in its debut weekend.

— The film was undoubtedly hampered by high competition in the genre — at the same time the military drama "Seven Versts before Dawn" was released, and last weekend the military film "Angels of Ladoga" was launched at the box office, which is already running on a good sundress. Among all the releases, Litvyak loses in terms of star caste, which affected the results of the training camp,— Zinyakova explained.

"Angels of Ladoga" about the feat of the athletes-boomers during the years of the siege of Leningrad remain among the leaders, but by a margin of 5 million they lost the first place to Kommersant with Alexander Petrov. Last week, the crime drama about survival in Matrosskaya Tishina managed to reach only the third place in the top, but it increased the interest of viewers. Weekend fees increased from 67 million to 97 million rubles.

— Kommersant showed a 46% increase in fees and increased operating time compared to the first weekend. Interest in the release grew thanks to the excellent sundress — both critics and the audience highly appreciated the crime drama," Zinyakova explained.

The second part of the family comedy "Zhdun" took the fourth place. At the start, the fees amounted to 57 million rubles. These figures are noticeably lower than the results of the first part in its debut weekend at the box office — it had 94 million rubles.

Completing the top 10 is another novelty of the week - the audio horror "Semitone". He earned a modest 18 million rubles. Although word of mouth continues to work in his favor, fans of the genre post videos on social networks with genuine emotions of fear that they experience during experimental film viewing: with their eyes closed, which allows them to focus only on the sound.

However, the film has a video sequence. In the story, the main character Evie hosts a late-night podcast about the paranormal. She doesn't really believe in them until she gets a selection of strange recordings, and creepy things start happening around her.

Next weekend, the war drama "Father", which won the audience Award at the 48th Moscow International Film Festival, and the debut directorial work of actress Alina Nasibullina "Shurale", inspired by Tatar mythology, will be released on wide screens.