The refusal of film distributors to show Western films during the May holidays again did not bring them any benefits - attendance and box office receipts fell by a third

Russian film box office receipts for the May holidays amounted to just over 1 billion rubles compared to 1.5 billion rubles a year earlier. Attendance over the same period decreased from 3.7 million to 2.5 million viewers. Kommersant reports this.

At the same time, the publication does not indicate how much attendance and box office receipts have collapsed in comparison with the first third of April, when Western films were released. The comparison is made with the previous May holidays, during which almost only Russian films were shown in cinemas.

The collapse in attendance could not be compensated even by a 10% increase in ticket prices, said Cinemaplex editor-in-chief Rifat Fazlyev. According to him, Russian patriotic films did not attract the attention of the audience.

🔵 " Patriotic cinema ". From May 1 to May 10, cinemas again refused to distribute foreign films that do not have an official copyright holder in the Russian Federation, in order to support domestic cinema. Russians were not shown major Western premieres, for example, the biopic “Michael” about Michael Jackson and “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” Instead, viewers were offered almost exclusively Russian films - the drama “Kommersant” with Alexander Petrov, as well as the war films “Angels of Ladoga” and “Litvyak”.

🔵 Context . For the third year in a row, Russian cinemas are forming a repertoire for the May holidays featuring almost exclusively domestic films. In both 2024 and 2025, the refusal of cinema chains to show Western films did not bring the expected revenue; later the companies returned to “pre-show service” - pirated screening of Western films.