Translated material
The "time of the first" did not start well at the box office. They try to save the film with the help of Vladimir Putin and the schoolchildren driven into sessions
On April 6, a film was released in Russian rental about the first exit of a person into outer space - “The Time of the First”. He had to become one of the main Russian ribbons in 2017, but so far he did not live up to expectations: for his first weekend, the film earned only 140 million rubles - half as much as the most modest forecasts. In the second week of rental, the regional authorities sent letters to schools, in which they recommend “in connection with the approaching Cosmonautics Day” to organize collective views of “time of the first” for students. Medusa found out why the loud release was on the verge of failure.
At the end of March 2017, the Minister of Culture of Russia Vladimir Medinsky met with the leaders of the country's largest filming to discuss the possible transfer of the premiere of the Fast and the Furious 8. Medinsky wanted to move the date of the release of the picture for a week-from April 13 to the 20s, so as not to create competition in the box office for the Russian picture about the output of a person in the outer space “Time of the First”.
Cinemas doubted the financial success of the domestic tape and feared that due to the transfer of the release of Fast and the Fast and the only large April release-the halls would stand empty for two weeks, and the cinemas would incur huge financial losses. The movie networks also agreed among themselves that if the date “Furious” is still postponed, they will collectively remove “Time of the First” from the second week of rental. The Minister Medinsky reacted to such a statement sharply: he said that he would not allow “talking with the Ministry of Culture from the perspective of ultimatum”, and the film protest was connected with the “acute desire of the film business to earn money quickly at the next Hollywood masterpiece, which has a distant attitude to the concept of cinema”.
As a result, on March 30, the first agreement in the history of the modern Russian rental was signed in the office of Medinsky, which concerned the number of “Time of the First”. The movie networks signed were given to the film about the first output of the Soviet man in open space 35% of the total number of sessions - at the first and second rental weeks, 20% in the third, and 15% in the fourth. Usually, the cinemas themselves make the decision on the number of sessions at every week of the rental, having previously approved the plan with the distributor.
RENTRAK General Director for Russia and the CIS (American research company, which is engaged in the analytics of the collection of film distribution) Roman Isaev told Medusa that the agreement, which signed the movie networks with Medinsky, stated that “in case of failure to provide [the Ministry of Culture] with the Fast and the Fast and the Fast and the Land 1” April Date of April 13, signing the networks, signing the networks, signing networks, signing networks They take off their obligations to fulfill this agreement. "
That is, "Fast and the Furious 8" comes out in Russia simultaneously with the whole world - April 13. The previous part of the Fast and the Furious raised almost one and a half billion rubles in Russia and entered the top ten cash films of the year, the distributors are waiting for the same fees from the eighth film; In their opinion, he should become the most profitable for the first half of the year.
On April 6, the film "Time of the First" was released. For his first weekend, the film earned a little more than 140 million rubles in Russia, while analysts predicted fees of 280 million rubles, and cinemas counted on 350-370 million. Before the release of the film, his producer Timur Bekmambetov hoped to collect about a billion rubles for all the time all the time of the rental.
According to Roman Isaev from Rentrak, "The film simply did not have time to swing to the start." He says that the advertising campaign of the “Time of the First” was “meager, dull and inconspicuous”, and it began too late. “A full -fledged advertising video appeared only a month before the release of the screens, and the first channel - it had to provide the film with information support - did not apply the resource that is usually used to promote large Russian releases,” Isaev said.
“The final installation was ready only on the night before the premiere-the picture was finished in hasty mode due to the ultimatical decision of Medinsky to dilute two films about space at the box office,” Isaev also specified, referring to another film about the feat of Soviet astronauts-Salyut-7 from the producer Sergei Selladanov; He must rent this fall.
Another factor who said at the failure of the film at the box office was called by Evgeny Mironov, an interference in the process of one of the producers of the film (and performer of the protagonist): “As I understand it, Evgeny Mironov was mainly engaged in all communications with the Ministry of Culture, it was he who took on the role of involving a state machine and power instruments. As a result, he proved himself as a person who does not understand the business processes of the film industry; Trying to engage his relationship with the authorities, he only made worse, ”Isaev remarked.
Evgeny Mironov was inaccessible to comment, he said that "until the end of the month he was busy on the set."
The leaders of the film aid also told about the failed first weekend of the “Time of the First”. The General Director of Formula Cinema, Yuri Kirillov, said that the result of the first day of the rental of the film was five times worse than the minimum forecasts. According to him, over the weekend, the Formula Kino noted 45% of the average revenue - the weekend was the worst in a few years. Kirillov also called the advertising campaign of the failure. “As such, the advertising went on the third day of the rental, and on Saturday everything revived - after the advertisement appeared,” Kirillov said, noting that the producers initially promised that the film would have a large -scale campaign that would bring the audience to cinemas.
Marketing Director of the Baseli film company (the company producer Timur Bekmambetov; since 1994, it produces video and feature films, among important releases - “Night Watch”, “Daytime Watch”, “The Irony of Fate. Continuation” and others) Olga Ageeva confirmed that the low fees of the first weekend to the company “really not They reach. " The company’s press release shows her words that the adult audience, which was primarily oriented to the film, usually “is not in a hurry to cinemas in the first weekend,” and indicated more than 90% of positive reviews, which, in her opinion, suggests that the picture would “work for a long time”. “Given the Cosmonautics Day, the second weekend may be more important than the first,” said Ageeva.
On the eve of the second weekend, the film began to drive schoolchildren. On Sunday, April 8, a screenshot of the letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of North Ossetia-Alania appeared in social networks, in which the department "urged the show" The time of the first "for students in grades 1-11."
The chief specialist and expert of the educational work department of the Ministry of Education Boris Khaimanov confirmed this information to Medusa. He said that according to the “Historical Tape,“ Time of the First ””, official letters were sent to the Education Department and to the schools subordinate to it. “Given the significance, courage and heroism of our conquerors of the cosmos, the feat of which is of such great educational importance for our children and youth, we worked with the leaders to watch the maximum number of children and identify dates - until April 20,” Khaimanov said. According to him, this was done on the initiative of the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of North Ossetia Irina Azimova.
On April 10, a similar letter appeared on the Internet from the Department of Education of the city of Moscow, in it the heads of educational organizations are recommended to organize a collective viewing of the film “Time of the First” for students. It was not possible to get comments in the press service of the Medusa Department.
On April 11, RBC confirmed from several directors of Moscow schools the fact of receiving such recommendations from the metropolitan department of education.
On April 12, on Cosmonautics Day, Baseli's Cosmonautics plans to show the “time of the first” in the Kremlin, as well as at the Baikonur and Vostochny cosmodrome. According to Vedomosti, Russian President Vladimir Putin should come to a special order in the Kremlin, which can draw additional attention to the picture.
Sasha Sulim