24 August 2011, 10:27 Culture

Conan helped by 3D

"Conan the Barbarian" topped the Russian box office

“Park Kultury” Russian box office: Conan led the parade of losers, losing the love of the audience to Anne Hathaway, the smell of the fourth “Spy Kids” did not become synonymous with success, and only “The Smurfs” had decent revenue.

Director Marcus Nispel is good at remakes - after the success of the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Friday the 13th, there was not the slightest reason to doubt this. So Lionsgate had no doubts and entrusted Nispel with rebooting the story of the Cimmerian warrior Conan, the main character of Robert E. Howard’s books and the character of the films released about 30 years ago with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role; this role opened the door to big cinema for the former bodybuilder and champion, and, in addition, the films were a box office success. It seemed like the recipe was simple: take an actor with muscles ( Jason Momoa ), give him a bigger sword and entrust the filming of a new film to a remake master in order to at least roughly preserve the main storyline. But it didn’t work out. On its premiere weekend in the United States, the film barely made it to fourth place in the ratings and can hardly count on good box office receipts in the future.

In Russia, things are a little better for the new “Conan the Barbarian”: at the end of the weekend, the film took first place, earning as much as 149.7 million rubles, which is approximately a third of all global box office receipts.

But it must be admitted that the first place and relatively high box office receipts were determined not by the merits of the film, but by the absence of strong competitors, “magic” 3D and a fairly large number of screen copies - as many as 1,220 pieces. But in terms of real viewer interest (an indicator of which is the collections per copy), “Conan the Barbarian” was inferior to the melodrama “One Day”, which was released on only 240 screens and took fifth place - 122.7 thousand rubles versus 127 thousand. Note that Lionsgate already seems to have found someone responsible for the failure, saying that the success of the film depended entirely on the choice of actor for the role of Conan. Apparently the casting experts are to blame.

The comedy-sci-fi action film “Spy Kids 4D” by Robert Rodriguez complemented the already familiar 3D smells of what was happening on the screen, but showed a familiar story about how the younger generation helps their parents out of trouble.

The film was released in Russia in approximately 800 copies, collected 80.3 million rubles over the weekend and took second place.

Let us remind you that the film did not shine at the American box office either, although it managed to outperform Conan the Barbarian. But, unlike “Conan,” there is most likely no need to talk about the film’s failure at all: global box office receipts are now $17 million, and “Spy Kids 4D” will certainly be able to recoup its $27 million budget.

Last week’s leader, the cartoon “The Smurfs,” moved into third place: it earned 64 million rubles over the weekend, and in total the Russian distribution brought this film 247 million rubles.

It is curious that the adventures of the blue gnomes turned out to be the only film in the Russian ratings this weekend that showed very good results in the world box office, earning $330 million against a 110 million budget.

But Jon Favreau ’s fantasy western “Cowboys and Aliens,” starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, which took fourth place , supported the general trend: the film, which cost $160 million to produce, has so far earned about $108 million. Russia has contributed little to the film: 37 million rubles over the weekend and 158 million in total revenue.

In fifth place, we repeat, is the melodrama “One Day” by Lone Scherfig with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess : due to the small number of screens, the film earned only 30.5 million rubles in Russia. The film's worldwide gross so far is $6.8 million, but with a $15 million budget it will likely break even.