This week, the Russian release of the main Oscar favorite, the historical and biographical drama “Lincoln” by Steven Spielberg, begins in Russia. The director again convincingly proves that serious themes in his performance are truly socially significant: the film has already been called an important cultural event and a democratic masterpiece, despite the fact that Lincoln was a Republican.

VLADIMIR BOROVOY

The film talks about the last four months of the life of the 16th President of the United States: it was then that the Civil War ended and the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted, which prohibited slavery. The film's script is based on the book "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris K. Goodwin, which DreamWorks bought the film rights to before publication. The first version of the script was ready in 2001, but it did not suit Spielberg at all. Another attempt followed, with another screenwriter, which also failed, and in 2006 the project was assigned to the famous playwright Tony Kushner, with whom the director worked on the film “Munich.” Kushner began reading all the literature on US history at his disposal and at the end of 2008, in an interview, he jokingly stated that he was currently finishing “approximately the 967,000th book about Abraham Lincoln.” As a result, he wrote a script that suited Spielberg, although the adventures of the project did not end there. The head of Paramount Pictures, Brad Gray, stalled production, fearing that the film would repeat the fate of the historical drama "Amistad", which Spielberg shot in 1997 for $36 million and earned only $44.2 million: it is clear that the box office success ratio (BSU) is 1. 22 is not at all what the studio expects from such a director. To appease Gray, Spielberg capped the production's budget at $50 million, but immediately faced another problem: in order to distribute the film to Touchstone Pictures, which has been distributing Spielberg's films at home since 2010, the director needed to pay Paramount for the production. It was not possible to do this right away - several rounds of negotiations followed, the film's budget increased to $65 million, but in the end everyone was satisfied. It can be said with certainty that Gray made the right decision in giving “Lincoln” the green light: by the beginning of the third week of January, it had collected $152.6 million at the American box office alone, showing an excellent CV of 2.34 for a biopic, and by the time of the Oscar ceremony ", where the film is nominated in 12 nominations, the coefficient will clearly increase.

Another fact that can be considered accomplished right now is that “Lincoln” will definitely be included in the list of the five highest-grossing films about American presidents, the only question is where exactly. The fact is that, despite the apparent goodness of the topic, films about the head of the United States do not always bring good revenue. You can remember Oliver Stone's work "Nixon": of course, it was completely criticized by those who revere Nixon, but Democratic critics, as well as members of the American Film Academy, considered the film "a good political thriller." However, the film failed at the box office: $13.5 million in receipts against a budget of $44 million. Actually, the top 5 box office “presidential” films are headed not by the biopic at all, but by the fantastic “Independence Day” by Roland Emmerich. In the film, if anyone has forgotten, the US President, played by Bill Pullman, remembers his military past - and he was a pilot during Operation Desert Storm - and leads an attack on the ship of alien invaders. Thanks to the heroism and courage of the president, as well as Will Smith in one of the main roles, the film costing $75 million grossed $817.4 million - a GCU of 10.9 and first place in the rating.

Second place in the top 5 is also given to the film in which the head of the United States proves himself to be a fighting guy - this is Wolfgang Petersen's "The President's Airplane." Here the president is played by Harrison Ford, and he is responsible for hijacking Flight N1, fighting terrorists (mostly Russians) and, of course, defeating the bad guys. The production of the film in 1997 cost $85 million, and earnings at the global box office amounted to $315.1 million (GCC 3.7).

Third place went to Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11", in which then US President George W. Bush played one of the main roles. The study of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan became the most commercially successful documentary film: on a budget of $6 million, it earned $222.4 million, showing an eye-popping GRR of 37.06. And to boot, he received the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

The only film in the ranking that even slightly resembles a biopic is the holder of fourth place - Oliver Stone's JFK: Shots Fired in Dallas. An excellently long, moralizing and decorous release in 1991 with a budget of $40 million, it grossed $205.4 million (GCC 5.13). As always, the figures are given without taking into account pirated views in the territory of the former USSR.

In fifth place is a film that will definitely leave this rating as soon as “Lincoln” completes its theatrical run—the conspiracy action thriller “Point of Fire” by Pete Travis, which movie fans call the most underrated action release of 2008. The cleverly twisted story, in which the role of the American president went to William Hunt, cost the creators $40 million, earnings at the global box office amounted to $151.1 million, and a GCC of 3.77 is not enough to stay in the top 5.

The last days of the president