Nine rounds of rental: why "The Dante Codex" became the best novelty in Russian cinemas

"Michael" and the third "Serf" continue to hold the lead at the Russian box office. The best new film was the crime drama "The Dante Codex". But during her first weekend at the cinema, she earned only 43 million rubles and was able to get only to the third line of the box office. The drop in attendance is making the film industry think again about the summer premieres of major blockbusters. Read more about the main results of the weekend and the struggle for leadership at the box office in the Izvestia article.

"The audience's sympathies were given to the holdovers"

Among the new releases, Julian Schnabel's crime drama "The Dante Codex" achieved the most impressive result over the weekend. The plot is based on Nick Toshes' novel "The Hand of Dante". His name was given to the main character of the film, a New York narcissist writer played by Oscar Isaac, obsessed with the translation of the Divine Comedy and the personality of its author. In general, Schnabel's work is experimental noir. The action takes place in two time planes. In the present, Toshes gets involved with mobsters who want to steal the original manuscript. In the past, Dante couldn't finish writing the final part.

— With such a cast, other novelties simply did not have the opportunity to compete. It's just all the stars of the first magnitude: Oscar Isaac, Al Pacino, Gerard Butler, Gal Gadot, John Malkovich and Jason Momoa. Plus, a large—scale, intriguing action game on the big screen is a rare guest. And there were no new releases of comparable potential. The audience's sympathies this weekend were given to the holders," explained Olga Zinyakova, General Director of the KARO cinema chain.

But a strong star cast was not enough to break out into the leaders of the Russian rental. According to the EAIS, "The Dante Codex" earned only 43 million rubles in its debut weekend and took the third place in the box office, failing to beat "Michael" and "Serf 3".

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The musical drama about the life of the king of pop music Michael Jackson has replenished its piggy bank by another 90 million rubles. This allowed her to keep the first place in the rating. It can be predicted that a few weeks will be enough for the film to overcome the 2 billion mark in total collections in the Russian Federation.

Meanwhile, Klima Shipenko's "Serf 3" is still only moving towards its first billion. And it's quite slow compared to other parts of the franchise. The first part collected about 2 billion rubles in two weeks, and the second reached 2.6 billion after the opening weekend. However, in both cases, the rental took place during the long New Year holidays.

Summer in cinema is traditionally a period of calm. The industry says that cinemas need the support and practice of launching Russian blockbusters this season. The creators of the "Serf" took a chance. Five weeks later, the new film has a total of 961 million rubles at the box office. Over the weekend, he brought in only 64 million at the box office, which, however, allowed him to hold the second line of the box office.

Big movie in summer

Curiously, this approach was also adopted by the new "The Last Hero" with the subtitle "Kolobok". The premiere is scheduled for August 6. At the same time, on July 13, the industry publication Cinemaplex reported that the distributor Atmosphere Cinema called on cinemas to "pay special attention to the importance of maximizing the success of the summer release" and postpone the start of screenings of the superhero action movie "Spider-Man: A New Day" as part of the pre-screening service (world premiere on July 29). The published letter also says that the domestic release "will allow the industry to continue the practice of releasing big films in the summer."

— We are extremely concerned that instead of covering really serious issues, the media is discussing standard procedures for changing the release date of a particular film. For three years, AVK has consistently advocated for optimal conditions for the promotion of Russian film releases. Our strategy includes careful planning of premieres, creating a favorable environment. This approach is aimed at strengthening and maximizing the potential of the national cinema," Alexey Voronkov, head of the Association of Cinema Owners of Russia, commented on the message in an interview with Izvestia.

It is worth noting that cinema attendance has dropped noticeably over the past few weeks, which is again typical for summer. The highest figure this season was 2.7 million viewers between June 11th and 17th. It was then that the third "Serf" was released, which may give hope that the practice will be positive. Last week, from July 2 to July 8, the figure dropped to 1.7 million.

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In the meantime, the box office continues to collect old releases. The top 5 Russian box office still includes the sci-fi horror film "Behind the Scenes of Reality" by 20-year-old director Kane Parsons. He earned another 26 million rubles and took the fourth place in the rating. Below is "Obsession," which was also shot by a young debutant, 26-year-old Curry Barker. She has a plus of 23 million at the end of the weekend. At the same time, "Obsession" entered the top 10 highest-grossing horror films in history at the global box office with collections of $426 million. Among other paintings in the top at the end of the weekend is "Three heroes. Not a day without a feat 3" (20 million rubles) and the family comedy "Grandfather Fomich" (18 million rubles).