Women were given seats in the cinema

After the announcement of partial mobilization, the audience of cinemas has changed: the share of men is about 30% against the usual 42%. In the Ministry of Culture, the dynamics is explained by the “specifics of current releases.” But experts associate it with mobilization. Cinema networks are counting on a rebalancing in November. But they fear that in the event of a second wave of mobilization, the fees for the New Year season will be lower than expected.

Kommersant got acquainted with the data of the Film Viewer service of the Cinema Fund (specializes in measuring film audiences) for the period from September 22 to October 23.

It follows from them that the proportion of the male audience of Russian cinemas in recent weeks has been lower than usual.

For the entire observation period, according to the service (launched in October 2019), the average share of men is 42%, women – 58%. On the first weekend after the announcement of the mobilization, from September 22 to September 25, the share of the male audience was 30%, and in the following did not exceed 33%.

Vladimir Petelin, director general of the Premier Hall chain (which manages cinemas in the regions), confirmed the downward trend in the proportion of male audiences. He notes that this affects the overall figures for collections, without specifying the numbers: “We assume that in a calmer environment, the results would be higher.” Other cinema networks declined to comment.

The gender composition of the audience determines the specifics of the stories shown on the big screen for the selected period, the Ministry of Culture believes: “In the historical drama The Heart of Parma, women were attracted by the mysterious image of Ticherti, the wife of Prince Mikhail; in foreign films “Three Thousand Years of Wishes”, “Jeepers Creepers: Reborn”, “Tower” the main character is a woman; family films “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Ivan Semenov – School Trouble!” attracted mainly women due to the specifics of the genre.

But experts object that the release “Heart of Parma”, which has been leading in recent weeks, on the contrary, was initially designed more for a male audience.

The current composition of the audience is atypical for the release, since in fact it belongs to the category of military action, explains Alexander Nechaev, editor-in-chief of the Film Distributor’s Bulletin. For example, the film The Legend of the Kolovrat (was at the box office in 2017) or The Union of Salvation (2019), also with a military theme, had a male audience share that exceeded 50%, the expert says. It is obvious that mobilization influenced the launch of The Heart of Parma, but the film has a good box office potential in the current conditions of low competition, Mr. Nechaev adds. According to the data of the Unified Automated Information System (UAIS), as of October 27, the fees of the “Heart of Parma” amount to 483 million rubles. “Kommersant” was not answered in “Central Partnership” (film distributor).

The decrease in the activity of the male audience may be due not so much to mobilization as to the lack of Hollywood cinema at the box office, Stanislav Demidenko, an analyst at Film Business Today, believes: “Women have always been more loyal to domestic cinema.”

In general, the “shock mobilization effect” will not last long and will no longer significantly affect the box office in November, Alexander Nechaev believes: “But in the case of new waves in winter, mobilization may affect the so-called New Year’s battle – the traditionally high season in film distribution.” Tickets to the cinema, as well as to concerts, after the announcement of partial mobilization in Russia, they began to buy less often (see “Kommersant” dated September 29). Cinema networks are still counting on good fees in November. Vladimir Petelin speaks of “high expectations” for films that open on October 27, such as “Liberea: Treasure Hunters” and “Terrible Dad”.

Valeria Lebedeva