Cinemas accused Medinsky of disrupting the premiere of "Adventures of Paddington-2"

The Association of Cinema Owners condemned the decision of the Ministry of Culture on the transfer of rolled films “Adventures of Paddington - 2” and “Running in the Labyrinth: Cure for Death” from January to February. She called it the gross intervention in the economic activities of cinemas.

The appeal says that the actions of Medinsky as a Minister of Culture are harmful to the development of the film industry.

“You have turned the standard public service for the issuance of a rental certificate into a censorship tool! While in the EAEU countries, for example, in Kazakhstan, the service for the issuance of rental certificates is notifying in nature, it has been transferred to the category of free electronic services of the state that do not even require the provision of samples of audiovisual works, not to mention the setting dates for the allocation. Today, it can be confidently stated that you, Mr. Minister, have returned the state regulation of the movie industry in the days of Soviet Goskino with your decisions, ”the owners of cinemas said.

According to the Association, the collective actions of the ministries cause economic damage to cinemas, distributors of films and, most importantly, to Russian viewers who are forced to change their plans and return the already purchased film tickets. Children also suffer, "who can’t understand why one of the officials decided to punish them by canceling the show of the film they expected."

The members of the organization emphasized that the success of Russian cinema in 2017, when its share in the domestic rental exceeded 25%, did not occur thanks to, but contrary to the efforts of the Ministry of Culture.

“We, the owners of cinemas, declare the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation that you, Mr. Minister, are not developing a movie industry, you are not creating successful Russian films, but talented Russian directors, actors, screenwriters, producers and crew members. Not your merit in financing film production at the expense of the federal budget! You are entrusted not to dispose of your personal money, but by the money of taxpayers, our money paid, including us - Russian cinemas in the form of taxes. Why do you consider it possible to make such decisions solely, even with a violation of the lobbied administrative regulations and decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation, obliging you as the Minister of Culture, in controversial situations on the releases dates to consider this issue at a meeting of the so -called “Expert Council for the issuance of a rental certificate”? - Wrote the owners of cinemas.

The Association turned to the Chairman of the Government Council for the Development of Russian Cinematography, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with a request to pay attention to the real situation in the Russian film industry associated with "consistent and excessive strengthening of administrative state regulation in recent years." The letter is also addressed to the head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemyev with a request to give a legal assessment of the practice of "unprecedented intervention of officials of the Ministry of Culture in the economic activities of commercial enterprises of the film industry and conduct an examination of existing regulatory and legal documents that allow officials of the Ministry of Culture to carry out such an intervention."

On January 17, it became known that the Ministry of Culture suffered the premiere of the film “The Adventures of Paddington-2” the day before his release.

Paddington was supposed to be released on January 18. However, the Ministry of Culture on January 17 issued him a rental certificate with the start date of the rental on February 1, 2018, despite the fact that the amount from the pre -sale of tickets for the film exceeded 800 thousand rubles.

As the source of Kommersant notes, on January 18, the Russian historical drama Skif is released, but it stood on this date “For three months”, so the transfer of Paddington is difficult to explain it with interests. According to the interlocutor of Kommersant, the Ministry of Culture in this way wants to remove the competitors of the film “Up movement”. The source emphasized that the pressure was also on the film “running in the maze: a cure for death”, which was offered to postpone the release date from January 25 to February 1.

Employees of three film companies, citing the words of officials, told Vedomosti that the Paddington’s exit was moved so that the Scythian and Movement Up have fewer competitors in the box office. Scythian producer Sergei Selvanov and the producer of “Movement Up” Leonid Vereshchagin told the publication that they did not discuss the transfer of Paddington or “Running in the Labyrinth” with officials.