Yes, there is a hint in it: Sarik Andreasyan defeated Danila Kozlovsky
The film adaptation of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin's masterpiece collected 668 million rubles in its first weekend. This is a record for director Sarik Andreasyan and the best start of a Russian film at the box office, except for New Year's releases. The film was seen by more than 1.5 million viewers. Another premiere, "Fire Zhora" with Danila Kozlovsky, earned only 62 million rubles. Other novelties were not included in the top 10 of the box office. Izvestia analyzes the preliminary results of the weekend.
"The Tale of Tsar Saltan" is heading for a billion
Sarik Andreasyan's record is an important indicator for critics of the director's work and views. And also for those who believe that the Russian cinema is tired of endless fairy tale films. The cash register of 668 million rubles proved that he was not tired at all. On the contrary, he is very much waiting for them and is ready to pay.
Of course, like any record of this kind, there are nuances. Before "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "Ice 2" held the record among the starts of non-New Year domestic films. In February 2020, he also went out on Valentine's Day weekend and eventually earned 580 million rubles. But Andreasyan's picture had just over 1.5 million viewers over the weekend, while "Ice" had 2.2 million.
This means that the ticket office was provided not only by the turnout, but also by the increased ticket prices. Perhaps the result would not have been so bright if "Fairy Tale" had only morning and afternoon sessions, as is often the case with family content, but cinemas gave it a lot of evening ones, which are more expensive. Hence the huge fees, although it should be noted that people gave this money readily — the average turnout was 43 people per session, which is very rare for our rental.
—Sarik Andreasyan's new film has made a solid start," says Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain. And he explains his success by the fact that "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" is a work of Pushkin familiar to everyone, which does not need a special introduction.
Sarik Andreasyan's relationship with Alexander Sergeyevich is generally very fruitful. Critics destroyed his film "Onegin" in 2024, but the picture eventually collected 790 million rubles, entering the top twenty most successful domestic films of the year.
"The Tale of Tsar Saltan" is likely to be included, if not in the top five, then in the top ten, and Pushkin has many more works beloved by all the people. Sarik Andreasyan seems to have finally found a gold mine, in search of which he made many mistakes during his career, the main one being the fantasy action game "Defenders".
The film with Danila Kozlovsky was a flop
The Maid holdover is in second place by a wide margin. The thriller has been at the top for a month now, this time it ended the weekend with 110 million rubles, and its total box office is approaching 1.2 billion rubles. He still has a great working time for the session, almost the same as the just-released "Fairy Tale". Therefore, it's too early to write off this film, it's moving towards 1.5 billion.
Marius Weisberg's comedy "Fire Zhora" has disappointing results. Danila Kozlovsky starred here for the first time in several years, which could have been a resounding return to the big screen. Mikhail Galustyan plays alongside him — such a duet seems both scandalous and intriguing. But the audience did not go to the film.
Rather, formally, she went, the film even took the third place in the top of the Russian box office, collecting 62 million rubles. But this is more than ten times less than the "Tale of Tsar Saltan".
The cinemas believed in this release, they gave it the most screenings since the "Fairy Tale". Twice as much as the "Maid", for example. And with the "Fairy Tale" the difference is only three times. But the viewer ignored the picture. If, as already mentioned, there are 43 people at the "Fairy Tale" session, then "Zhora" has only 9. This is the worst figure in the weekend's top ten.
— "Fire Zhora" showed the start within expectations, the film with the age limit of 18+ managed to climb to the third place of the top. He mainly attracted the audience with his cast and genre," Olga Zinyakova believes. — At a time when the neighbors were moving either on marketing or on the "sundress", the novelty did not have enough presence in the information field, advertising, to get a more tangible result.
The theme of Valentine's Day did not detonate at the Russian box office this time. And anyway, it turns out that the distributors didn't guess the choice, because none of the new products were in the top 10 in terms of fees anymore. Even the scandalous romcom "Happy when You're Not" with Sasha Bortich, which fits perfectly on Valentine's Day weekend, went unnoticed.
— "Happy when you're not" is an alternative movie with an atypical love story and a small budget, — Olga Zinyakova noted. — It is difficult for such content to achieve popularity among the mass audience. Other releases coming on February 14 couldn't compete with the holds of "The Maid," "Marty the Magnificent," and "Asylum," which the couples went to.
The main premiere of this week is "The King and the Fool. Forever", the sequel to the acclaimed series. The film will have the opportunity to compete with the "Tale of Tsar Saltan". At least the evening sessions are likely to go to him, but we won't know who wins the battle for first place until a few days later.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
