On August 1, in Moscow, some cities of the Moscow region, as well as in Yaroslavl, Ulyanovsk, Tula and Tver, as part of the lifting of restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, film screenings resumed. At the end of the week, the Cinema Foundation and the Unified Federal Automated Information System for Information on Film Screenings in Cinema Halls (UAIS) published statistical data on the main distribution indicators.

According to the information provided, in the week from July 30 to August 5, 2020, cinemas revenues from ticket sales amounted to 54.2 million rubles. This number is five times higher than last week, when box office receipts reached 10.3 million rubles.

Over the past few days, the number of settlements where cinemas function has doubled: 339 against 164. They are distributed across 39 regions of Russia, but in nine of them only autocinemas were operating.

Nevertheless, the influence of car cinemas on the overall picture of rental is gradually decreasing: compared to the week from 23 to 29 July, the regions where exclusively drive-ins operate have decreased by two. Since the beginning of the month, the share of car cinemas in the total revenue fell from 31% to 2%.

A total of 541 venues hosted almost 30 thousand shows, which were attended by 192 thousand spectators. The average ticket price has also changed: if on the weekend from 23 to 26 July it was 233.3 rubles, then last weekend it reached 306.9 rubles - this is the most impressive result in July.

Nevertheless, despite the resumption of functioning of a larger number of outlets and an increase in the number of viewers, the box office of cinemas lags significantly behind last year's values.

So, according to the UAIS, only for the weekend from 1 to 4 August 2019, the amount of gross receipts from the film screenings was 798.7 million rubles. In general, in 2019, the volume of the national film distribution market amounted to 55.5 billion rubles, which was the best result in 20 years of its existence.

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In June, TASS cited the calculations of the Association of Cinema Owners, according to which rental losses could amount to 48 billion rubles if a significant part of the venues opened on July 15. At the same time, before the start of quarantine measures, the possible volume of box office receipts for 2020 by the same department was estimated at 60 billion rubles.

The chairman of the Association, Oleg Berezin, said that 15% of the halls did not open on August 1. Such venues as Horizon and Roland will no longer accept spectators. In total, according to Berezin's estimates, about 20% of cinemas may close or change the operating procedure in Russian regions.

In an interview with RIA Novosti, Berezin noted that this will happen gradually: “The peak will have to be first in October-November, and then in January, when you have to pay your bills with sharply dropped incomes,” he said.

At the same time, the AVK chairman emphasized that independent cinemas with a “dedicated audience” have more chances to survive the crisis.

General Director of the United Cinema Network Alexei Vasyasin, in an interview with Interfax, noted that cinemas will need two weeks to prepare for the opening and about a month for advertising campaigns.

The audiences will indeed have to "drag" the audience: during the pandemic, viewers had to master new methods of watching movies. Online movie theaters have grown in popularity, with many platforms offering users tangible discounts or offering free access to content.

Also, car cinemas were organized in different regions. They appeared in Moscow, Kaliningrad, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Perm and other cities.

Such venues allowed viewers to watch movies together again, while maintaining a social distance. However, auto theater revenues were comparatively small. Drive-ins are designed for shows in the dark, and in conditions of long daylight hours, not many sessions can be scheduled. In this case, payment is provided for one car, regardless of the number of passengers inside.

Safe return

Back in May, Rospotrebnadzor issued recommendations regarding the safe operation of cinemas. These include social distancing, remote and contactless ticketing, extending the intervals between sessions to ventilate and thoroughly clean rooms, and avoiding crowding.

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  • © Evgeny Odinokov

At the moment, the repertoire of cinemas consists mainly of world premieres of the previous months. The top 12 films of the week included "My Spy", "Escape from Pretoria", "Gentlemen", which started in winter, and the available online March release of "Trolls. World Tour ", as well as a relatively fresh cartoon for family viewing" Call of the Jungle ", which began showing in the summer.

During the period of the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Prime Minister's schedule has changed several times. So, the release of Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller Argument was postponed several times. The tape kept on the date of July 17 for a long time and could become the first blockbuster after the opening of cinemas.

However, with the changing epidemiological situation in many countries around the world, Warner Bros. postponed the start of shows at the end of the month, and then on August 12. Later, the release date changed again. In Russia and the CIS countries, "Dovod" will appear on the big screen on September 10 - two weeks later than in most European countries and some countries of the Middle East.

An ambiguous situation has arisen in connection with the release of the film adaptation of the cartoon "Mulan" from Disney. The studio said this week it will air on the Disney + network starting September 4. Cinema rental is possible in countries where the service is not available. These include China - the country where the overwhelming majority of the audience of the film lives. According to the website "Bulletin of the Kinoprokatchika", in Russia the rental will begin on September 4.

On the same date, the release of the tape "New Mutants" was previously planned - it is not yet known how long this premiere will be postponed. Other upcoming films will begin hitting theaters by the end of the fall. The premiere of "Black Widow" from Marvel is expected on November 5, and the new part of the Bond film "No Time to Die" starts on November 19.

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Yesterday we opened the educational program of the Beat Film Festival with a big public talk “The Myth of the Artist” with Olga Sviblova and Olga Kroytor after the screening of the film “Chasing Banksy”. The partner of the educational program this year is the real spring water of Russian origin @waterful_official. Ahead - even more than a dozen conversations around the films of the program with the participation of important city experts and journalists. Today, for example, before the screening of Apollo, there is a discussion about how music changes the city and its citizens with the participation of Mikhail Alekseevsky, Anatoly Ais and Sonya Elterman. And tomorrow after the premiere of the film "Truman Says Capote" Anna Narinskaya, Maxim Semelyak and Igor Kirienkov will talk about how Capote and others wrote in literary texts about their friends and enemies.

Publication from Beat Film Festival (@beatfest) Aug 3, 2020 10:16 am PDT

Festivals are also returning to cinemas. The first major event was the two-week Beat documentary festival. Since August 1, it has been running simultaneously in two formats - traditional and online. Most of the feeds are available on the Internet.

The Moscow International Experimental Film Festival MIEFF is scheduled for the second half of August. Its main program will be 29 short films. The show also includes the Fireworks program, which will include a lecture, video installation, performance and film screenings.