🎦 Pirated Odyssey Overtakes The Gingerbread Man at the Russian Box Office
Unofficial theatrical distribution in Russia has once again outstripped legal releases, with Christopher Nolan’s epic drama The Odyssey topping the box office chart after a one-week hiatus.
According to estimates by Kinobusiness Bureau (Bulleten Kinoprokatchika), the gap between official EAIS automated tracking data and verified distributor revenues reached 230 million rubles (a 3.6% increase week-over-week), driven largely by unauthorized screenings of the Hollywood blockbuster.
Among official releases, the fairytale feature The Last Warrior: The Gingerbread Man retained its lead. Falling just 21.5% in its second weekend, the film earned 193 million rubles across 448,000 admissions. The project’s cumulative box office reached 552 million rubles with 1.32 million viewers, outperforming the trajectory of Domovoy Kuzya 2. The hybrid live-action/animated feature KikoRiki Across Universes also showed strong hold, dipping just 17.5% to yield 61.8 million rubles for the weekend, bringing its total haul to 173 million rubles (448,000 viewers).
The primary legal newcomer was Renny Harlin’s thriller Flight Crash, starring Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley, which debuted in fourth place with 26.7 million rubles (52,500 viewers). Alexey Ryazantsev, head of Karo Premier, noted that the distributor expects to close its opening week around 40–45 million rubles despite pressure from the piracy sector. Meanwhile, the Antonio Banderas thriller In the Grip of Fear claimed eighth place with 9.9 million rubles, while the Japanese horror film The Demonologist debuted in ninth with 8.2 million rubles.
Among long-running titles, the biopic Michael and the comedy Son of a Rich 3 continued their impressive theatrical runs. In its 12th week, the pop-king musical drama added 23.8 million rubles, bringing its total revenue to 2.272 billion rubles across 4.2 million viewers. Son of a Rich 3 added 12.6 million rubles in its 10th week, boosting its overall box office to 1.173 billion rubles. The family comedy Grandpa’s Village 2 brought in 12.7 million rubles over the weekend (reaching 372 million rubles overall), while Obsession, which rounded out the top ten, reached a cumulative gross of 520 million rubles.
The combined box office for the top 20 films in Russia totaled 626 million rubles (888 million rubles including the CIS region). While this reflects a 5% drop from the previous weekend, it marks a 210% surge compared to the same period last year.
Source: Kinometro
