The animated film “Three Heroes and the Navel of the Earth” by Konstantin Feoktistov has already earned more than 952 million rubles at the Russian box office, setting a new box office record in this genre.

Considering that the film is in theaters, this figure will change.

To date, the film has been watched by almost 2.9 million Russians.

In a conversation with RT, the producer of the project and co-founder of the animation film studio “Melnitsa” Sergei Selyanov said that the 12th part of the franchise turned out to be an anniversary in a certain sense.

“This year marks the 20th anniversary of our heroic franchise; the first cartoon “Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin the Serpent” was released in December 2004.

And this same year marks the 25th anniversary of our animation studio “Melnitsa”, which produced “The Bogatyrs”, “Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf”, “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers”, “Luntik”, “The Barboskins”, “The Princesses” "and many other animated films," the producer noted.

“And, of course, it’s nice that a new cartoon about heroes is showing such fees in the anniversary year, it can’t help but make us happy.”

  • © Still from the cartoon “Three Heroes and the Navel of the Earth”

At the same time, the filmmaker emphasized that box office revenue exceeded all forecasts and expectations.

“Although we did not expect such results, it is all the more pleasant to receive such figures.

“Bogatyrs” has always demonstrated high box office receipts, but our conservative forecast was 500+ million rubles - and the plus turned out to be significant.

True, from the very beginning we expected that the plus would not be small due to the setting of the new “Bogatyrs,” said Selyanov.

In the list of the highest-grossing domestic cartoons of all time, second place is occupied by the fifth part of the franchise - “Three Heroes on the Distant Shores” of 2012.

According to the Film Distributor's Bulletin portal, the film earned almost 933 million rubles at the Russian box office.

The third place is occupied by the film “Three Heroes: The Knight's Move” (over 853.6 million rubles).

In fourth place are “Three Heroes and the Princess of Egypt” (773.8 million), and in fifth place is “Three Heroes and the Sea King” (772.4 million rubles).

The plot of the new part of the franchise is traditionally built around the heroes, who this time will go to prehistoric times.

One day Gorynych finds a small reptile, and after a while Alyosha Popovich, Prince of Kiev and the horse Julius find themselves in the past, where they meet primitive people and dinosaurs.

While Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets are trying to figure out how to bring their friends back, Alyosha demonstrates his characteristic heroic power, from which even the king of terrible lizards, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, cannot hide. 

  • © Still from the cartoon “Three Heroes and the Navel of the Earth”

Speaking about the reasons for the box office success of the new project, Selyanov noted the subject matter that was attractive to the audience and the role of a successful advertising campaign.

The filmmaker also shared his plans for the future.

“Currently we are working with the Skazka studio on a new cartoon, Marakuda, where the action takes place in the primitive world.

As it turned out in focus groups, such a setting is very attractive to viewers; children, as you know, love dinosaurs and this era.

Accordingly, this worked in “Bogatyrs”, where the heroes find themselves in another era, where there are dinosaurs and other fantastic inhabitants, all of which are interesting to the audience.

Well, the advertising campaign did not disappoint,” he concluded.

The film “Three Heroes and the Navel of the Earth” was released on December 28, 2023 and continues to lead among projects of its genre.

Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Bird,” which opened in cinemas across the country on December 7, 2023, is also performing well.

The film is available in three different dubbing versions, and its total box office receipts in Russia amount to 415.7 million. 

Among domestic films of all time, the box office record belongs to the family film “Cheburashka,” which collected over 2 billion rubles in the first five days of release.

Total revenue amounted to 6.78 billion rubles.

In second place is Klim Shipenko’s work “Slave 2”, which earned more than 3.44 billion rubles.

The plot revolves around the former major Grisha, who decides to re-educate the representative of the golden youth Katya and “sends” her to 1812.