"Would Spider-Man ruin a Bun's cash register? Not a fact"

The issue of shady rental of foreign films in Russian cinemas has become relevant again in the summer of 2026. The reason was given by the Atmosphere Cinema company when it called on cinemas to postpone pre-screening screenings of the new "Spider-Man" until August 20 in favor of the official domestic release of "The Last Hero. Kolobok". As a result, the fairy tale and its creators were heavily criticized. The fire of the situation was added by the very nervous reaction of the film's director Anton Malov. As a result, the haters brought down the rating of the film to the lowest values. Izvestia talked with writer, playwright and screenwriter Alexander Tsypkin about how this could have been avoided, whether Peter Parker really claimed Kolobok's money and what the power of Russian cinema is.

"There is a prejudice against Russian cinema"

— The movie "The Last hero. Kolobok found itself in a situation of such resonance, which the industry has not remembered in recent years. Why do you think this happened?

— Cinema is always magic. Sometimes she gets people to go to the movies, and the movie suddenly takes off at the box office. No one can fully explain how it works. But there is also reverse magic: the film suddenly has problems, and it is also not always clear why.

The fairy tale "The Last hero. I haven't watched Kolobok, so I can't say anything about its quality. I am sure of only one thing: it may not be better, certainly not worse than the previous parts. Nevertheless, some kind of negative magic happened to her.

— But it seems that in addition to the metaphysical, this negativity has quite objective reasons. I am referring to the reaction of the film's director Anton Malov to the criticism of the film on the Web. Especially under the post of some simple electrician who criticized the graphics in the trailer of the film, and in response, the director publicly and obscenely criticized the way the master himself makes electrical panels.

"What happened?" Anton Malov's harsh response to one of the haters, critics, caused a backlash. I even talked to several electricians — they massively stood up for my colleague. And the kneading began. In my opinion, it was an obvious PR mistake. There was no need to enter into such a discussion at all. And if you really want to join in, you can turn everything into a joke: "Come to the cinema, watch the movie. If anything, we will refund your money."

The second problem is a letter from the distributor to cinemas asking them to postpone the unofficial screenings of the new "Spider—Man" until August 20. The letter became public knowledge and only fueled the negative attitude towards the film.

And all this happened against the background of the fact that there is already a prejudice against Russian cinema in our country. And for some of the audience, it looks like an obsession.: no matter what comes out on the screens, the Russian film is not accepted in advance. And as soon as there is a reason to defeat him, they take advantage of this opportunity. It's sad, but it's true.

A fairy tale to be: Spider-Man appeared at the secular premiere of "Kolobok" in Moscow

How was the closed screening of the new part of the franchise "The Last Hero"

"Russian cinema has long proved its competitiveness"

— Could the Marvel movie really compete with the collections of the Russian fairy tale?

— Would Peter Parker have ruined a Bun's cash register? Not a fact. These films have slightly different audiences. Therefore, perhaps it was not worth resorting to such drastic measures.

— At the same time, the resonance caused by the confrontation between Spider-Man and Kolobok became the reason for discussing a much more global issue — the control of illegal screenings of foreign films as part of pre-screening services. The day before, this topic was raised by Presidential Adviser Elena Yampolskaya.

— I think we need to start from a simple thing here: people want to watch movies. Including Hollywood movies. Viewers want to receive a service — to watch a foreign blockbuster on a big screen. This demand will generate supply one way or another. The market will respond to it in the way it can. Therefore, it will be impossible to completely block this channel.

— Is it necessary at all?

— Russian cinema has long proved its competitiveness in relation to Hollywood — even before the sanctions, including high fees. We withstand this competition on the platforms as well. You need to understand that you can watch almost anything for free on pirated resources — Netflix, Amazon, and HBO. At the same time, people watch our films on domestic paid platforms and are ready to give money for it. It means that we are making a good movie.

Therefore, it is probably not necessary to cancel Western cinema screenings. Unless it's a New Year's rental, I would support this practice. In the end, Hollywood won't hurt.