Displays of a pirated copy of the film “Barbie,” directed by Greta Gerwig, collected 120 million rubles in the first weekend and topped the Russian film box office, reports the Film Distributor’s Bulletin magazine, which regularly calculates movie theater revenues.
As the publication notes, since it is impossible to take into account all the illegal screenings of the film, in reality the amount could be much higher.
In the official box office, writes the Film Distributor's Bulletin, the fifth film collected the most over the weekend part of the American franchise After. Forever» (85 million rubles), as well as the American thriller «Art by Concepts» (20 million rubles).
At the end of the summer, the Ministry of Culture reported that the American films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” do not meet the goals and objectives of preserving and strengthening traditional values. This was stated in the response of Deputy Head of the Ministry Andrei Malyshev to an appeal from State Duma Vice Speaker Vladislav Davankov, who proposed allowing screenings of both films in Russia without the consent of the copyright holders.
The Ministry of Culture emphasized that “representatives of the film industry note the positive aspect of the reduction in box office number of films from Hollywood film studios,” as this “contributes to the development of domestic cinematography.”
“The Russian box office is full of high-quality domestic premieres. In 2023, such big releases have already been released as the family film “Cheburashka”, which became the highest-grossing film in the history of Russian cinema, the first feature film shot in space “Challenge”, the first feature film about the modern history of Russia “Witness”, — said the department's response.
The propaganda film «Witness», dedicated to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, collected only 13.9 million rubles from its release on August 17, the average attendance of the film was five people per session. “Cheburashka” really became a box office film — in two weeks of release, it collected more than 3 billion rubles.
The world premiere of the films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” took place in July. In two and a half weeks of release, Barbie earned more than $1 billion and became the highest-grossing film in Warner Bros. history. “Oppenheimer” earned more than $500 million in three weeks of release.