Russia's Culture Ministry has another plan to save the country's cinema (it's quotas again)

Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky is promoting his latest idea to shake up the country’s cinemas: ban movie theaters from devoting more than 35 percent of their screenings to one film. Medinsky says he believes the “current model” has lead to “monopoly” and “decay” that limits audiences’ options.

Medinsky blames Western distributors for contractually forcing Russian cinemas to devote 50-60 percent of screenings to certain movies. The culture minister complains that roughly half the movie screenings in the country right now are showing the latest “Star Wars” installment.

• Medinsky has also proposed a three-percent tax on each movie ticket sold in Russia to support domestic filmmaking. He says this could raise 1.5 billion rubles ($25.6 million) annually.
• Over the years, Russia’s Culture Ministry has repeatedly floated protectionist ideas to promote domestic films over Hollywood imports. In 2014, for instance, the ministry wanted to require movie theaters to show at least 20 percent domestic films, but cinemas strongly objected to the quotas, and the government abandoned the plan.