The Russian film "The Last Warrior: Kolobok," directed by Anton Maslov, earned about 250 million rubles in its opening weekend, according to official figures, despite widespread media reports of empty theaters. The film premiered on August 6.
Alexey Voronkov, chairman of the Association of Cinema Owners, told the National News Service the apparent contradiction came down to scheduling. He said cinemas typically run 5 to 7 screenings of a film, but some venues scheduled 20 to 25 showings of Kolobok. When an entire cinema of seven or eight halls is devoted to one film, he said, not every screening will be full, calling it simple math.
Spider-Man backlash
Voronkov said the wave of criticism against Kolobok was sparked by fans of Spider-Man, after a pirated screening of the new Spider-Man film in Russia was pushed to August 20 at the request of Kolobok's distributors. He said the controversy began with a couple of naive teenagers before being picked up by tabloid media, and that he saw nothing alarming in it, describing the film as high quality.
He said the hostility seen in Moscow was not mirrored in the regions, and that audience surveys at his cinemas showed viewers leaving highly satisfied. He added that Kolobok's target audience is broader than Spider-Man's, with Kolobok playing in nearly all Moscow cinemas compared with roughly 10% for Spider-Man.
An NSN correspondent reviewed ticket sales at two of Moscow's most fashionable cinemas, Oktyabr and Khudozhestvenny, finding sales for the week of August 10 to 16 were practically at zero.
