Master for a Billion – Kommersant FM

The film “The Master and Margarita” collected more than 1 billion rubles. in film distribution. This follows from data from the UAIS State Cinema Fund. However, the fees still do not cover the project budget, which amounted to 1.2 billion rubles. The film appeared on screens at the end of January and earned more than 400 million rubles on its first weekend.

In terms of box office, the film was the leader in both the first and second weeks of release, ahead of “The End of Glory” with Pavel Derevyanko, “The Bremen Town Musicians” with Tikhon Zhiznevsky and Konstantin Khabensky, and also “Slave 2” with Milos Bikovich.

The film directed by Mikhail Lokshin is the sixth film adaptation of the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. The role of the Master was played by Evgeny Tsyganov, Margarita by Yulia Snigir, and Woland was played by the star of Inglourious Basterds, German actor August Diehl. The film became the 25th Russian film to gross 1 billion rubles. in theatrical release, and only the 11th from the list, which was not shown on New Year’s holidays.

What contributed to such indicators? Editor-in-Chief of the InterMedia news agency Evgeniy Safronov believes that the main factor is the lack of worthy competitors in cinemas: “The general situation in Russian cinema, obviously, this weekend was set up for The Master and Margarita; nothing more serious was simply planned. This is usually how international concerns operate around the world – they release the most impactful releases on weekends, somehow reaching an agreement among themselves. This is what happened here too, and this is good; it testifies to the civility of the market.

Secondly, of course, the literary basis, which enjoys constant attention. Thirdly, excellent actors: no matter how they are criticized, these are famous people who arouse interest.

And, of course, inflation. 1 billion rub. now it’s not 1 billion rubles. a year or two ago. Tickets are becoming more expensive, there is more money in circulation in the country, and many can afford to buy tickets if they couldn’t before. But, in my opinion, income is not the most important thing in the cultural industries, what is important is the impact on society.”

Previously, more than 1 billion rubles. For example, the films “Slave 2”, “Musicians of Bremen” and “Cheburashka”, as well as the cartoon “Three Heroes and the Navel of the Earth” were collected at the box office. It is unlikely that such success in the domestic film industry will be easy to repeat, notes member of the board of the Association of Cinema Owners Roman Isaev: “Unfortunately, collecting more than 1 billion rubles. – this is not a trend for Russian film distribution. We have a huge number of films operating significantly below this threshold. This is hampered by the quality of the films themselves, which are made in such a way that they are not interesting to the viewer enough to collect 500 million rubles. or 1 billion rubles.

Remember last year: in addition to the amazing case of “Cheburashka”, “At the Command of the Pike” and “The Challenge”, which barely reached 2 billion rubles, although this is a film from which much more was expected, most Russian films collected 30-100 million rubles . Yes, there were three or four films that collected 400-600 million rubles. But there should be at least 20-30 such films a year, then we will say that our cinema is somehow systematically developing.

And you and I understand that 2024 is a very difficult year in terms of its repertoire and will largely repeat the fate of last year. We will have “Ice 3”, “The Flying Ship”, “One Hundred Years Ahead” ahead of us, and then fail again for six months.

We don’t have films that have great audience potential because they don’t get made.”

Interest in the film was also fueled by user discussions on social networks. After the film’s release, patriotic activists on Telegram channels demanded that director Mikhail Lokshin be added to the list of extremists for his statements against the fighting in Ukraine. Currently these posts are not publicly available. The consequences of appeals to the Investigative Committee and the FSB were not reported.

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Maria Shirokova