Cheburashka vs. Batman: will movie theaters be saved by “forcedly licensed” blockbusters

Experts, unlike deputies, believe that no

The deputies found a way to return Hollywood blockbusters to Russian cinemas. The lower house is drafting a bill on compulsory licensing of foreign cinema, Anton Gorelkin, deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, said. Film industry experts took the idea as a script for a thriller. Distributors, living in the timid hope of the return of studio Hollywood to Russia, predicted a wave of multimillion-dollar lawsuits from foreign film companies.

Well, film critics are sure that we need to shoot more of our Cheburashki, and not strive to return Avatar to the screens.

The bill on compulsory licensing of foreign cinema was announced by MP Anton Gorelkin.

“I think this year is the time to put an end to the debate about the mechanism of compulsory licensing of Western films. According to my information, a bill is being discussed that will allow cinemas to legally show new foreign films and not engage in the semi-legal practice of “pre-screen service,” wrote the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy in his Telegram channel.

Film business experts fear that legalized piracy will not only not hasten the moment of the hypothetical return of major Western film companies that left Russia against the backdrop of the NWO, but will also mean a fundamental break in relations with them. Moreover, violation of the copyright protection regime for imported films will sooner or later have a negative impact on the domestic industry, experts believe.

Aleksey Byrdin, General Director of the Internet Video Association, stressed that the violation of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in terms of imported film distribution would also deprive Russian films that are released on foreign screens of protection. Last year alone, Russian filmmakers exported 46 films, which brought their creators $16 million. Compulsory licensing abroad will be perceived as a hostile act:

– This situation is like a balloon that cannot burst in one place. A unilateral change in the intellectual property protection regime will put Russia in a pirate “Tortuga regime”. Even if Western film companies someday decide to return to our cinemas, they will have an extremely negative impression. Conditionally neutral and even friendly countries will react to such a step in exactly the same way. We can cut off the flow of legal foreign cinema. Moreover, we will not be able to show our film production abroad. Russia’s cultural expansion will fail. This game is not worth the candle, – says Alexey Byrdin.

Sergei Lavrov, an independent film business analyst, is convinced that Russia needs to focus on producing its own box office films, rather than figuring out ways to return foreign blockbusters to the screens. Moreover, we already have positive examples.

– We have learned how to shoot high-quality series and “full meter”. People could easily switch to domestic films after the departure of Western film companies, Alexey Byrdin is sure.

However, for high fees, competent marketing is necessary, experts say. Here he is with us and is lame on both legs, putting cinemas on the brink of survival:

– Out of 240 domestic films released last year, only 25 collected money. For example, the new film by Grigory Konstantinopolsky “Clipmakers” with a production budget of 200 million rubles and an advertising budget of only 10 million collected 14 million rubles at the box office. This is a financial disaster. The movie itself is good, but people don’t know about it. Spectators come to cinemas and automatically go to a foreign film simply because domestic cinema is badly advertised, Sergey Lavrov complains.

Experts are sure that compulsory licensing will not help patch the gap in the budget of cinemas:

– After the withdrawal of Western film companies from the Russian market, cinemas have no profit for promotion. It was not the film itself that brought money to distributors, but advertising for future releases and trailers. Foreign filmmakers spent a lot of money on this. If pirated copies of imported films are legalized, this will not bring money to cinemas, – says Alexey Byrdin.

The outcome of Cheburashka’s battle against the Avatar or Batman is still unclear. Film business experts fear that with the light hand of legislators, victory may go to Hollywood monsters and superheroes, and our good eared one will remain living in a box of oranges.