French films at the Russian box office in 2010

05 5月 2011

After a plunge of nearly 70% in admissions between 2008 and 2009, French films regained momentum this year, registering a rise of 40.1%.

The Russian theatrical market

Despite the economic recession of 2008, the Russian theatrical market continued to maintain strong growth. With a 15.58% rise in attendance figures, a 46.7% rise in box office revenues, a 15.6% increase in the number of movie screens, and a 28.9% hike in ticket prices (due primarily to the digitization of theaters and additional costs connected to 3D technology), the theatrical market in ロシア appears to be in fine health, and has become the envy of many other countries.

Nevertheless, these fine results (which show, in dollar terms, Russia exceeding $1 billion in ticket sales, allowing the country to join the world's top five box office earners) mask a somewhat less favorable picture: while Russian films' market share since 2004 was well over 20%, it tumbled to 15.3% in 2010, largely due to the fact that local blockbusters (such as The Exodus - Burnt By the Sun 2 by Nikita Mikhalkov) failed to live up to expectations.

While last year, Russian productions took out three places in the Top 10, only two made the grade this year, squeezed between a string of American productions. This year was also marked by the opening of new theaters (865 sites, with 2,430 screens) and the rapid rate of digitization (941 digital screens in operation, representing 39% of all screens, compared to just 350 in 2009!).

French cinema

The number of spectators for majority French films increased by 28%, while the figures for minority French films more than doubled those of 2009. It is worth noting that three films produced by Luc Besson, including two productions he directed, feature among the impressive list of fifty new French titles (including minority co-productions) released on Russian screens in 2010. Not since the arrival of cinema in ロシア had such a high number of French feature films been released.

With over fifteen companies acquiring French productions, Russia stands out as a key distribution partner, particularly as the diversity of taste of these distributors is clearly reflected in the range of films selected, with all film genres and all budget scales represented in the commercial circuit. The remarkable performance of Mr. Nobody by Jaco Van Dormael is worth noting: released on four prints, this film raked in close to €500,000, thus ranking as the most profitable film released on less than ten prints since Perestroika. The distribution outfit Russian Report was, for the first time, the most active distributor of French films, releasing nine titles, although no more than four prints of each film were released.

Finally, the total number of prints of French films in circulation in Russia continued to rise, with the largest number of prints to date released in 2010.