Karo Cinemas: Russian Cinema Sector Continues to Show Resurgence

Karo's Olga Zinyakova and Paul Heth; image courtesy Karo

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The seventh weekend after the August 1st, 2020 reopening of cinemas in Russia has brought over 1.2 million moviegoers, marking the first time since the shutdown that Russian cinemas have exceeded 1 million patrons over a weekend frame, writes Russian chain Karo in a statement. These results are in line with pre-COVID market averages for the Russian cinema sector.

Karo operates 32 cinemas with a combined total of 262 screens across Russia.

The two box office leaders of the weekend were Disney’s Mulan, which lead the market in attendance, and Warner Brothers Tenet, leading in terms of box office for the second week in a row.

Said Paul Heth, CEO of Karo Group: “We are getting more and more optimistic regarding the Russian moviegoing market recovery. For the moment only 72 percent of cinema venues are open, and they are still limited with 50 percent capacity restrictions, but the weekly growth in attendance and box office shows that people are eager to get back to big screen experience. We were pleased that all of our brands to include our large format offering Luxe and our luxury experience Karo Black. Plus our core Karo family pricing program all had strong bookings and usage”

Added Olga Zinyakova, president of the Karo cinema chain: “With Saint-Petersburg reopening its cinemas this weekend, Karo has relaunched the whole network in nine regions of Russia. We are extremely happy with [the] weekend results, and we are quite sure that the following weekends will be even more successful as Mulan and Tenet will continue to attract audience jointly with new releases, including forthcoming domestically produced blockbusters like Streltsov, which we open later this month.”

Karo's Olga Zinyakova and Paul Heth; image courtesy Karo

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