The king sings everything: the biopic "Michael" is approaching 2 billion

Cinema attendance declined again, dropping to 1 million viewers over the past weekend. But Antoine Fuqua's film "Michael" demonstrates stable leadership. Kholop-3 lacked 32 million rubles to reach the first line of the Russian box office. The successful franchise with Milos Bikovic earned 80 million. Kane Larsons' horror hit "Behind the Scenes of Reality", which took third place, replenished its box office by 32.7 million. It is followed by the animation "Three heroes. Not a day without a feat 3", which earned 28 million in its second week of release. And the comedy "Grandfather Fomich" with Nikita Kologrivy became the most successful novelty this week. Over the weekend, the film grossed 27 million rubles. Izvestia assessed the preliminary results of the national rental over the weekend.

The story of the legend

Last weekend demonstrated the genre polarity of the rental and the price endurance of the leaders. There are completely different patterns on the market: Russian blockbuster, large-scale foreign biopic, horror, family comedy and animation.
The musical drama "Michael" has been breaking records for the fifth week. The biopic about the pop king has already become the highest-grossing in history among the tapes about musicians, surpassing the Bohemian Rhapsody about the rock band Queen.

Over the past weekend, "Michael" set a historical record at the Russian box office. Having demonstrated phenomenal resilience, earning an impressive 113 million rubles, the film brought the total box office in our country to 1.74 billion rubles. This was mainly achieved due to pricing and the steady interest of the adult audience. More than 3.6 million people went to this feed, and the average cost of one ticket reached 484 rubles. This figure has become the highest among all the leaders of the summer season, as viewers are willing to overpay for evening sessions and viewing in premium formats with enlarged screens and advanced sound systems.

The faithful lackey

The comedy blockbuster "Serf 3" by Klima Shipenko collected an impressive 855.9 million rubles at the domestic box office, according to official reports of the EAIS. The commercial success of the triquel from Central Partnership provided a strong start: 13.8 million rubles in pre-sales and 262 million rubles in the debut weekend. On the fourth weekend, the amount was 80.6 million rubles, which is also quite a lot. Milos Bikovic, Ivan Okhlobystin, Alexander Samoylenko and Maria Mironova returned to their roles in this project, and Pavel Priluchny, Kristina Asmus, Anya Chipovskaya and young Vitaliya Kornienko provided a fresh dynamic to the plot about traveling in the era of Peter I. The film confidently continues the box office traditions of the franchise, the first two parts of which have already earned over 6.9 billion rubles and attracted more than 21 million viewers to cinemas.

"Terribly rich"

The horror "Behind the Scenes of Reality" by Kane Parsons has become a real box office phenomenon in Russia. The film has already attracted more than 1 million viewers to cinemas, and its total fees have reached 640 million rubles.
According to the EAIS, the tape demonstrates enviable stability. Having started with 176 million rubles in the first weekend, the film retained high audience interest. The fifth week of distribution brought the creators another 32.7 million rubles, which officially made the film the highest-grossing project of studio A24 in Russia. Moreover, in terms of the average occupancy of the halls, the novelty surpassed the biopic "Michael" — 21 people per session versus 20.

The plot is based on the famous Internet legend of "Behind the Scenes", a frightening parallel world that is an endless maze of empty rooms with yellow wallpaper and buzzing fluorescent lights. That's where people accidentally "fall out" of our reality. Thanks to the convincing performance of Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinswe, the focus of the film shifted from banal scares to a tense psychological thriller.

The heroic format

The animated almanac "Three heroes. Not a day without a feat 3" from the studio "Melnitsa" and the film company "STV" clearly demonstrated how a proven brand works. The project has firmly established itself in the top 3 of the Russian box office, but its commercial trajectory has turned out to be very specific. Having earned 47.1 million rubles at the start, by the end of the second week of rental, the picture added another 28 million rubles to its piggy bank.

The project "Not a day without a feat" began to be released two years ago. Compared to previous releases, the dynamics turned out to be negative: the first summer special of 2024 started with 59.1 million rubles, the second year later — with 69.6 million rubles. There is a seasonal apathy of the audience. Well, there is strong competition from unofficial Hollywood animation screenings (Toy Story 5).

Despite the sagging numbers, "Three Heroes" keeps the family audience in cinemas during the summer lull and prepares the ground for a full-length release. The release of the next cartoon in the franchise called "Three Heroes and Geese-Swans" is scheduled for December 24, 2026.

To Grandpa's village

The opening weekend brought 27.3 million rubles to the new family comedy "Grandfather Fomich" from NMG Kinoprokat, which allowed the release to confidently close the top 5 leaders of the domestic box office and become the best novelty of the weekend. According to the official reports of the EAIS, the total balance of the film, taking into account pre-sales and the box office on the day of the premiere, has already crossed the mark of 30.1 million rubles. Such a powerful launch of the project directed by Garik Petrosyan and Grigory Sukhov is due to the high audience interest in the star cast: key characters on the screen were embodied by Nikolai Dobrynin, Nikita Kologrivy, Andrey Merzlikin, Anya Pokrov and Gleb Kalyuzhny.

Next week, the adventure comedy "The Sea-Sea Highway" starring Aram Vardevanyan, a young Ostap from Igor Zaitsev's Bender trilogy, is being released. The audience is also waiting for "The Dante Codex" with Al Pacino and Gerard Butler and the new action movie "Living Fury" from the creators of the movie "House of Flying Daggers". Izvestia will help you decide on the choice. Follow our publications and posters.