“Spider-Man” for the first weekend overtook Russian and foreign films at the box office

The cartoon “Spider-Man: The Web of Universes” for the first weekend in the unofficial box office in the Russian Federation collected 91 million rubles, overtaking “The Translator” by Guy Ritchie and “The Challenge” by Klim Shipenko. The Sony franchise has a chance to overtake foreign novelties in terms of final box office receipts, experts believe. Including because the format of “pre-screening service”, within which “Spider-Man” is shown, is being introduced by more and more cinemas.

The continuation of the Sony Pictures Animation franchise “Spider-Man: The Web of Universes” for the first weekend (June 8-11) collected 91 million rubles in Russia, overtaking both foreign films and Russian films, follows from the data of the Film Distributor’s Bulletin. At the box office, the film can be found under the guise of “pre-screening service”. This means that the cinema sells a ticket to the visitor for a domestic film, but before it starts, it shows a foreign film as an “advertisement” or “trailer”.

In second place at the end of the weekend is Guy Ritchie’s Translator, which was distributed in Russia by Volga. The total collection of the film amounted to 155 million rubles, calculated in the Bulletin. “Challenge” closes the top three: despite the fact that the total box office of the film exceeded 1.8 billion rubles, interest is declining (at the box office since April 20). Over the past weekend, the picture has collected 30 million rubles.

Spider-Man: Web of Universes is the second film in the Sony franchise, its budget was $150 million. The tape became Sony Pictures’ highest-grossing cartoon, collecting about $390 million worldwide in ten days. Spider-Man now grosses over $187 million in the US and $88 million elsewhere.

The first Spider-Man: No Way Home co-produced by Columbia Pictures Corporation, Marvel Studios Inc. and Sony Pictures Entertainment set a box office record in the Russian Federation on the first day in the post-COVID period (see Kommersant dated December 17, 2021). Then, according to the Unified Automated System (UAIS), the box office by December 15 amounted to 239 million rubles.

Sony’s animation quickly overtook the “official” fourth part of “John Wick,” says a Kommersant interlocutor in the industry: “The film’s box office on the first day of rental, according to the UAIS, amounted to only 52 million rubles. “Spider-Man” with such a start has every chance to overtake the action movie in the general training camp.” Now at John Wick-4 they, according to the Bulletin of the Film Distributor, amount to 874 million rubles.

However, Dmitry Litvinov, producer and publisher of the Film Distributor’s Bulletin, disagrees with this forecast: “The film will definitely not be able to overtake John Wick-4, since it is not shown in large federal networks.”

The success of “Spider-Man” is due to the fact that the advertising campaigns of films released in legal distribution turned out to be weaker than the effect of the news about the release of the franchise, believes Alexei Byrdin, CEO of the Internet Video Association. In addition, more and more cinemas are beginning to practice “pre-screening service” or pirated screenings, Mr. Litvinov believes.

“Spider-Man is a famous big franchise. The film overtakes The Interpreter, because the latter is a rather specific Guy Ritchie film about Afghanistan, American soldiers. In Russia, such films are traditionally not very successful at the box office,” Mr. Litvinov believes. He clarifies that The Translator collects box office in Russia primarily because of the director’s popularity and cannot compete with Spider-Man in terms of “hours per session”, despite the unofficial status of its rental.

Julia Yurasova