🧹 Russia’s Online Cinema Market Faces a Shake-Up
Alexey Goreslavsky, CEO of the Internet Development Institute (IRI), summed up the past five years and outlined plans for 2026 in a recent interview.
Over this period, the organization’s budget has grown nearly tenfold—from 3 billion to 26 billion rubles.
Key takeaways from the interview:
Where the money goes. In 2025, more than half of the budget (51%) was allocated to video content, 34% to the блогосфера (blogosphere), and another 5% to games and software. By 2030, total state support for internet content is expected to reach 100 billion rubles.
A cleanup is coming to the online cinema market. Goreslavsky believes that having 10 active platforms is excessive for the Russian market. In the long term, only about five players—integrated into large ecosystems—are likely to survive.
Production economics. Film production costs rose by 10–12% over the year. Platforms have moved away from the “be like Netflix” strategy (focused on volume) toward co-productions and higher-quality content.
New distribution horizons. IRI is beginning to actively work with the audience of the national messenger Max (100 million installs). Projects on Max are already featured in new funding competitions. At the same time, Telegram remains an effective channel: 580 projects have accumulated 2.7 billion views there.
Major premieres in 2026. Among the anticipated hits are the spy action film Centuria, adaptations of works by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (Hard to Be a God and Noon: 22nd Century), and the game Road of Life. A revival of the Night Watch universe is also being considered.
The head of IRI emphasized that today the institute acts not just as a sponsor, but as a partner-curator, monitoring both the “value perspective” and the measurable effectiveness of content.
