Eared against aliens: "Cheburashka" bypassed "Avatar" and became the highest grossing film in the Russian box office

"Cheburashka" - a fabulous family comedy by Dmitry Dyachenko ("What Men Talk About", "The Last Bogatyr") - has become the absolute leader of all time in the domestic film distribution.

The film confidently went to conquer this height from the moment it was released, setting record after record: it took about ten days for the "eared" to get around "Kholop" by Klim Shipenko (3.08 billion rubles) and thus take first place among domestic films at home rental.

Now Cheburashka has won another victory: before its onslaught, the record of Avatar, which has been at the top since 2009 with the amount of fees exceeding 3.5 billion rubles, has fallen.

Another record of "Cheburashka" is the amount of daily collections during the New Year holidays.

From January 2 to January 6, inclusive, the tape took first place in the rating in the entire history of the rental.

“From the first day when “Cheburashka” was released, sold out in cinemas.

Electronic ticketing systems hung a lot, and there were failures, because it was a completely unexpected, unpredictable hype for Cheburashka, which we had never seen before, ”the E1.ru portal quotes Vladimir Petelin, general director of Premier Hall cinemas.

Possible reasons for the success of the film include the protagonist, the material and its presentation, which provide nostalgic feelings for adult viewers and attract the attention of children.

As the Minister of Culture of Russia Olga Lyubimova noted, even though the holidays are over, the “dress” works and people continue to go to the sessions.

In addition, among the factors of success, domestic critics name the trust in the team of Dyachenko, who filmed The Last Hero, all parts of which also collected a very impressive box office.

Another possible nuance is the lack of serious competition in the domestic market.

Other Russian films that were released on New Year's Eve turned out to be less noticeable, and they could not boast of comparable production budgets.

The departure of Western majors from the Russian market also contributed to the success of Dyachenko's tape: for example, Cheburashka did not have to openly face the second part of Cameron's "Avatar" - the American blockbuster did not go into official distribution.

• © Frame from the film "Cheburashka"

The huge success of the film was a real treat for cinema owners, who over the New Year holidays reached pre-pandemic levels in terms of box office and attendance.

From January 1 to January 8, more than 13 million Russians visited cinemas.

“In cinemas, the level of attendance reached the pre-pandemic period… The repertoire that was presented interested exactly at the same level, despite the fact that there were no foreign blockbusters at the box office.

This is 4.4 billion rubles.

fees, 13.2 million tickets were sold for film screenings in cinemas - this is 95% of the possible attendance, ”Olga Lyubimova said at a briefing.  

Cheburashka is followed by the fifth part of the cartoon franchise Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf and Vladimir Kott's painting The Naughty 2.

Thanks to the successful performance of the New Year holidays, Russian cinemas will be able to pay off part of the debts accumulated over 2020-2022, but all financial holes will still not be closed, says Roman Isaev, CEO of Comscore in Russia, member of the board of the Association of Cinema Owners.

“There are small rays of hope for the prospects of rental in 2023 in cinemas, this is very good.

The success of Cheburashka influenced the result of the work of cinemas for the first eight days of the new year, ”NSN quotes Isaev.

His opinion is shared by another member of the Association of Cinema Owners, Alexei Vasyasin.

In an interview with RT, he noted that "in January, the cinemas coped, but you won't be full all year with Cheburashka alone."

A similar point of view was expressed by the head of the Association Alexey Voronkov.

He believes that for the normal functioning of the industry, films like Cheburashka in Russia should be released many times more.

"Cheburashka" is an amazing film that shot.

But in order for the cinema to live, for people to constantly go to the cinema, for the cinema to at least work at zero, and not at a loss, we need to collect 35-40 billion rubles a year ... Therefore, we need ten such Cheburashkas a year, ” Voronkov is quoted by TASS.