At the end of 2023, the top 5 largest distributors were occupied by domestic film companies

At the end of 2023, the top 5 largest distributors were occupied by domestic companies – Central Partnership (CPS), NMG Kinoprokat, Volga, Atmosphere of Cinema and Nashe Kino. Experts note that the youth program for preferential ticket sales “Pushkin Card” significantly helps distributors in their collections.

Wanta Group (in 2018, together with the Cinema Fund, launched the “Kinozritel” service, a rental meter in the Russian Federation), at the request of Kommersant, prepared a rating of the top 5 distributors based on the results of 2023. The TsPSh company (part of Gazprom Media Holding) continues to lead the list: receipts amounted to 13.9 billion rubles. in 2023 versus RUB 4.1 billion. in 2022. Now the company occupies 46% of the market, although back in 2022 the figure was 21.5%. At the same time, the number of TsPSh releases year-on-year decreased from 48 to 25. The highest-grossing ones are “Cheburashka” (6.8 billion rubles, according to the “Film Distributor Bulletin” (BC) as of August 27, 2023) and “Challenge” (2. 1 billion rubles, according to bookmaker data as of December 31, 2023).

Second place in the ranking was taken by NMG Kinoprokat (a structure of the National Media Group) with a market share of 14.5%, displacing the independent distributor Volga. The total box office receipts for the 12 films he released amounted to 4.4 billion rubles. One of the company’s most successful projects was the fairy tale “At the Command of the Pike” (RUB 2.5 billion as of January 28). Volga, by the end of 2023, closes the top 3: fees decreased from 3.4 billion rubles. in 2022 to 2.8 billion rubles, market share decreased from 17.9% to 9.2%. At the end of 2023, not a single release of the company was included in the top 20 highest-grossing films in Russian distribution.

In fourth place is “Atmosphere of Cinema” (founders: ex-director of Universal Pictures International in Russia Nikolai Burunkov and former general director of the Russian office of Universal Vadim Ivanov), which displaced Sony Pictures Productions and Releasing (SPPR). The film distributor’s box office amounted to 2.3 billion rubles, although the company was not on the list of leaders back in 2022. “Our Cinema” remained in fifth place in the rating, increasing its receipts to 2.1 billion, but reducing its market share (6.9%) and the number of films at the box office (17).

The Kinoprokat company completely left the top 5, although in 2022 it was in the top three. Back in 2020, Warner Bros. changed the distributor of films in the Russian Federation: instead of Karo Premier, which had been distributing her films theatrically for more than 20 years, the Russian division of Universal Pictures International (UPI, see “Kommersant” dated December 14, 2020) took over. In 2022, management closed Karo Premier due to its association with Warner Bros. The companies did not respond to Kommersant’s requests.

In general, 2023 was the first year after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine when Russian film distributors occupied the entire rating. TsPSh traditionally works with the largest releases, notes Kino-teatr.ru editor-in-chief Zhan Prosyanov: “There are no prerequisites for this to change, given how strongly they started the year with The Bremen Town Musicians (2.8 billion rubles . on February 4) and “Kholop-2” (3.7 billion rubles on February 4), essentially competing with themselves.” The market share of TsPSh will definitely exceed 30%, believes Ksenia Boletskaya, director of industry relations at Yandex.

Mr. Prosyanov added that the work of NMG Kinoprokat with the film “At the Command of the Pike” was a “pleasant surprise”: “The distributor showed that it is possible to collect more than two billion not only in the ‘New Year’s battle,’ and this greatly expanded the horizons.” Film distributors are further supported by an increase in the volume and quality of domestic content, ticket prices and the Pushkin Card. (state program for Russians 14–22 years old; from a card to which the state credits 5 thousand rubles, you can pay for tickets to movies, museums, theaters, exhibitions and concerts). According to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the market, most of the highest-grossing releases of this year were available through this program.

Yulia Yurasova