Russian box office predicted to see dramatic fall in 2009

It comes as Russian distributors report a difficult start to the year with gross down by 16.33% year-on-year $319.95 m for the six months from December 1.

According to Russian Film Business Today, admissions have also fallen over the same period last year with a 5.9% dip to 62,802,067 people despite cinema ticket prices coming down by 16% from $6.7 to $5.1.

The local market saw 145 films released over the six month period, with just 58 grossing more than $1m. This compares to 186 films in the first six months of 2008, with 77 taking more than $1m. The decline is attributed to the recession that has hit the Russian film industry.

The country’s leading distributor for the year to date is Caro Premier/Caro Prokat, which has earned $81.83m and taken a 25.6% slice of the box office pie. Its sci-fi adapation of the Strugasky brothers’ 1969 novel, Inhabited Island Part One earned $21.8m during January’s high season.

Central Partnership/CP Classic is a close second 24.71% of the total box office with $70.1. Its highest grossing release is the epic drama Taras Bulba, an adaptation of the Nikolai Gogol novel of the same name, which made $16.9m.

CP Classic has also done well with Cédric Klapisch’s Paris, which has taken $318 061 with only 10 copies, while South Korean Kim ki-duk’s romantic fantasy, Dream (Bi-mong) is the highest-grossing Asian film (Premium) despite taking  just $63,568 from four screens.