Kings can do anything: "Michael" beat "Bohemian Rhapsody" at the Russian box office

The leaders of the Russian box office held their positions following the results of the last weekend. The musical biopic "Michael" is still on the first line, and the sequel to Klim Shipenko's comedy "The Serf" is on the second line. The high-profile horror films "Obsession" and "Behind the Scenes of Reality" are in no hurry to give in to the novelties. Among the weekend premieres, a domestic response to the iconic "Karate Kid" and a cartoon about the adventures of three heroes made their way to the top. For more information about the results of the film distribution, see the Izvestia article.

How "Serf 3" helped the summer film distribution

According to the EAIS, cinema attendance reached a summer low last weekend — only 1.2 million viewers. The maximum figure was recorded two weeks earlier, after the release of the third part of Klim Shipenko's comedy about re—education, "The Serf." Then the attendance reached 1.6 million viewers.

Following the results of last weekend, the new "Serf" took the second place in the box office, and his total fees exceeded 700 million rubles. However, the film is gaining sales more slowly than the previous installments released in winter. The first collected about 2 billion rubles in two weeks, and the second reached 2.6 billion after the opening weekend. In both cases, the rental occurred during the long New Year holidays, when people traditionally go to the cinema more often. However, the practice of launching Russian summer blockbusters may eventually form the viewer's habit of visiting cinemas during this period.

— A more complete analysis of this strategy will be possible by the end of the summer. But it is already clear that major releases attract viewers to cinemas and help draw the audience's attention to other, less noticeable rental novelties. "Michael" has already collected 1.5 billion rubles, "Serf 3" is rapidly moving towards the 1 billion mark. Cinema attendance has increased compared to the same period in 2025," Olga Zinyakova, General Director of the KARO cinema chain, told Izvestia.

The biographical film "Michael" about the life of the king of pop music consistently holds the leadership in the domestic box office. In a month, he collected 1.5 billion rubles. and has already surpassed the "Bohemian Rhapsody" about the band Queen and its vocalist Freddie Mercury, which at one time earned a little more than 1 billion in Russia. "Michael" is going briskly and may well cross the threshold of 2 billion rubles. This weekend alone, he has +132 million rubles on his account.

Meanwhile, at the global box office, the Michael Jackson film officially became the highest-grossing biopic in history, collecting $ 977 million, Variety reported.

To the nines: Our answer to the Karate Kid and the adventures of the Black Hen

What to watch at the cinema this weekend

The Russian answer to the "Karate Kid"

The best novelty of the weekend was the cartoon "Three heroes. Not a day without a feat 3". He debuted with collections of 47 million rubles over the weekend.

— "Three Heroes" is a well—established brand from the studio "Melnitsa". The franchise has more than 10 films that have always shown good collections, and has an audience of millions. Viewers still go to the cinema to watch their favorite stories about heroes, but now, in the summer season, many are away, which means that the film will work longer if it is supported by marketing, Olga Zinyakova believes.

At the top of the boxing office is "The Karate Kid" with Roman Kurtsyn, Miron Provorov and MMA fighter Magomed Ismailov. The family sports drama largely refers to the iconic "Karate Kid" (1984) and "Karate Kid" (2010). In Russian reality, the plot centers on twelve-year-old Sasha, who is forced to move to live with his aunt from Moscow to Pyatigorsk. At the new school, where not all peers are happy with the newcomer, Sensei Dmitry and his daughter Masha help the guy to find support. Over the weekend, the tape earned about 17 million rubles.

— The "Karate Kid" performed within the expectations. He had to compete with two new films with an age limit of 6+ — the franchise "Three Heroes" and the comedy about bloggers "Unboxing", as well as with the third part of "The Serf". Thanks to the sundress, the release has a chance to stay in the top for a couple more weekends," Olga Zinyakova said in an interview with Izvestia.

Next, by a margin of 400 thousand rubles, is the film "Night Business" starring Russell Crowe as the owner of a nightclub in Los Angeles, who finds himself embroiled in a serious mess — cartel money is stolen from his establishment.

The sensational horror films "Behind the Scenes of Reality" (43 million rubles) and "Obsession" (about 26 million rubles) are still in the top of the box office.

Next weekend, the family comedy "Grandfather Fomich" will compete for the box office. In the story, a pensioner, in order to rally his family and gather everyone under one roof, decides to take an adventure — he pretends to be terminally ill. Nikolai Dobrynin played the role of the grandfather, and Nikita Kologrivy played Fomich in his youth. Andrey Merzlikin, Gleb Kalyuzhny, Ekaterina Volkova, Anya Pokrov, Alexander Novikov and others became family members on the set.