Russian cinema operator KARO, boasting 262 screens across 32 locations, has offered insight into the state of the Russian box office moving into 2021.
Reports the operator, the most successful film over the New Year’s holidays in Russia was Dmitry Dyachenko’s family fantasy The Last Warrior: The Root of Evil, the ten-day holiday take of which made up half of the national box office over that time. A Disney release from production companies Yellow, Black and White and TV Channel “Russia,” The Last Warrior collected more than 1.6 billion rubles ($24.1M) over the holiday period.
Despite occupancy restrictions still in effect in cinemas, The Last Warrior was able to set a number of local cinema records. At the end of its second weekend it was ranked fifth globally for international distribution, trailing behind several Chinese films and Disney’s Soul.
The Last Warrior set box office record for January 1st and became the fastest film to reach to 1.5 billion rubles at the box office, a bar it passed on its ninth day of release.
The total box office of the first ten days of 2021 in Russia reached 3.34 billion rubles ($45.3M). This is approximately 72 percent of the record-breaking box office generated in Russia during the same period in 2020.
Paul Heth, executive chairman and CEO of the KARO Group, and Olga Zinyakova, KARO Cinemas president, said in a joint statement:
“We keep on moving forward despite all the challenges presented by the COVID pandemic. Our distribution partners and filmmakers have fearlessly continued to believe in the allure and power of their stories being told on the big screen. Our audiences, despite having all manner of in-home entertainment options, recognize the magic of watching and experiencing motion pictures in our cinemas. In fact if not for the restrictions imposed by the very real challenge of Covid the Russian cinema sector would have set yet another holiday box office record. We are confident that as the public health situation improves and the distribution of vaccines for COVID broadens our industry will see an unprecedented and significant recovery for moviegoing.”
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