Shot from the movie “Minions: Gruvitation”

Russian cinemas continue to look for ways to survive in the face of sanctions. The combined network of Formula Kino and Cinema Park planned to launch a new service – “movie product” from today. It was necessary to designate sessions in this way, during which the audience could watch a Russian film supplemented with “foreign video materials”, that is, a Hollywood film. It was assumed that the first “movie product” of the network will include the cartoon “Koschei. Inception”, and as “foreign video materials” the cartoon will be shown to the audience by the Universal Pictures studio “Minions: Gruvitation” (the world). premiered in June). However, they later decided to abandon this idea.

This morning, the media reported that Alexei Vasyasin, the general director of the cinema chain, said that in the future, any premiere of Western film studios leaving Russia could be part of the “film product”. It was assumed that the price of tickets for such screenings will be higher than usual – 10-20%.

Vasyasin quoted by the BFM portal.

At the same time, according to him, the company plans to share the proceeds from ticket sales only with Russian distributors. He described all this as a necessary measure, but expressed the opinion that this would have a positive impact on the box office of domestic films.

Later, network management changed its mind:

The company said in a statement quoted by Interfax.

From this description, we can conclude that the action was actually a joke, as its purpose was to “draw broad attention to the problems of the film distribution industry and begin to develop a unified plan for the film industry to get out of this situation”. :

Vasyasin stressed.

Frame from the cartoon “Koschei. The Beginning”

Ksenia Boletskaya, director of interaction with the industry at Yandex, reacted on the telegram channel:

After the start of the Russian Federation’s military special operation in Ukraine, Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount and Lionsgate left Russia, which means the cancellation of almost all Hollywood premieres. Russian cinema chains began to release world classics and cult Soviet films. In addition, there are Russian, Indian and Korean premieres in the program of cinemas in the country. At the same time, without Hollywood movies, attendance dropped significantly. According to the projections of the Association of Cinema Owners (AVK), in such a case half of Russian cinemas could close due to lack of repertoire.

In early July, the president’s special envoy for international cultural cooperation, Mikhail Shvydkoi, said that the possibility of “parallel distribution” and “compulsory licensing” of films could be considered to protect cinema networks in Russia. AVK recently proposed to free cinemas from the responsibility of showing foreign films without distribution certificates (which can now be held liable, including criminal liability). Meanwhile, cinema chains of different cities find ways to show “forbidden”. For example, the service “Kinolektoriya” appeared on the poster of the Orenburg cinema “Cosmos”. During these screenings, foreign tapes were renamed – for example, “Sonic 2 Movie” became “The Blue Hedgehog” and “Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness” was called “Doctor Aibolit and Mega Cosmos of Madness”. In Perm, Hollywood novelties are showcased as part of the “free preview service” before the Russian movie “Sky” and the Armenian cartoon “The Adventures of the Tsar”.