American films decided to replace pictures from India, Turkey and China

Film expert Lavrentiev: “It is impossible to replace Hollywood in terms of revenue”

“Moskino” will make up for the lack of American and European films in the Russian box office with films from South Korea, India, Turkey, China and other countries, said Natalya Mokritskaya, director general of the institution. She recalled the success of the South Korean film Parasite, which received several Oscars, and the Indian historical thriller RRR. However, not all pictures from friendly countries can boast of such a breakthrough. Will the mass audience go to non-Hollywood cinema, MK asked film critic Sergei Lavrentiev.

– Here the principle applies: there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped. Of course, in terms of revenue, Hollywood cannot be replaced, but it can be recalled that there are many countries in each of which films are shot. Once on the screens there were pictures far from being only Hollywood ones, something was more popular, something less. But people knew that there was cinema in Bulgaria, in Mongolia, in Argentina, in Japan. And now there is Hollywood, our people are trying to imitate it, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much, and the French are doing something. And it’s like there’s nothing else. The current situation will help viewers understand that the world is large and diverse. In Thailand, for example, 300 films are made a year, and we only know Tom Yum soup. India has 900 films a year.

– But will people go to films from India, Thailand and other countries with which our box office can work?

– That’s a question. Moskino is a chain of municipal cinemas that don’t require insane revenue. There were five Hollywood films in the Soviet Union. “The Magnificent Seven” and “Spartacus” enjoyed insane success, but the rest was inferior to Ryazan’s films. Another thing is that the time was different. What our industry can oppose now is a question. Let’s see how the premiere of the film “The Heart of Parma” (the adaptation of the novel by Alexei Ivanov endures the 15th century – M.M.), which opens the Moscow Film Festival, will take place. This is generally the right move – to make global blockbusters against the backdrop of history. But it is impossible to predict whether the audience will go or not. Most likely, it will not have such a box office success that Hollywood had in Russia, but who knows.