«Dracula» by Luc Besson Becomes Leader of Russian Box Office

Viewers want legal foreign films.

According to the Unified Federal Automated Information System of the Cinema Foundation, as of the end of September, box office revenues for theaters during this period increased by 47%, reaching nearly 2.5 billion rubles (about 25 million euros), compared to 1.7 billion rubles the previous year. The attendance in theaters in September also showed growth, albeit slight — 6%, totaling 6,000,000 viewers. Two projects of Russian production made it to the top 5 in box office earnings. These are the war drama "August" (AO "Directorate of Cinema", second place, total box office for September — 300.5 million rubles or 3 million euros) and the thriller "Down" (LLC "Vice Films"; fifth place, earnings — 117 million rubles).

The majority of viewers chose the adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" by Luc Besson (475.7 million rubles, first place). In third place is another adaptation of Stephen King's horror "The Long Walk" (213.4 million rubles), followed by the Franco-American animation "Beast Train" (143.4 million rubles).

However, while the official box office was increasing, the alternative box office (screening films without copyright holders in Russia under the guise of short films) continued to lose revenue. According to the industry publication Cinemaplex, in September, the total box office for such releases amounted to 162 million rubles, which is 45% lower than the figures from the previous year. Attendance for these screenings also dropped, analysts note, from 724 thousand to 366 thousand viewers.

From the perspective of real estate market participants, even the positive dynamics of the box office will not change the situation for cinemas. After the pandemic, the level of cinema attendance is in a state of "swings" ranging from 90 to 150 million viewers per year, depending on the year, political situation, and the presence of box office hits, reminds Senior Director, Head of Marketing Research and Retail Concept Development at CMWP Andrey Shuvalov. For projects where the area of cinemas is 4–5 thousand square meters, these figures are considered "critical," he believes, which requires reducing the cinema area to ensure efficiency and increase ticket prices: "In new projects, cinemas are considering an area of about 2.5 thousand square meters with reduced halls, but the number of halls remains at five to six."