Pushkin's time: "Red Silk" and "The Prophet" entered the top of audience expectations

Russian moviegoers are most looking forward to the release of the films "The Prophet. The Story of Alexander Pushkin", "Red Silk" and "Kraken". This is evidenced by the data of a study by Wanta Group, which it conducted at the request of Izvestia. The top 10 expected domestic premieres also included "Palma 2", the sequel to "The Wizard of Emerald City" and "Captain Hook". Among foreign releases, Russians are most eager to see the Turkish melodrama "Leave it to the Wind," as well as "Avatar 3," "Shrek 5" and the adventure picture "Ochi" with Willem Defoe and Emily Watson. At the same time about many upcoming major releases domestic viewers know almost nothing, stated in the study.

"Prophet" and "Red Silk" in the leaders of expectations

Top viewer expectations in Russia are headed by the movie "The Prophet. The Story of Alexander Pushkin", "Red Silk" and "Kraken", according to a study by Wanta Group, which it conducted on behalf of "Izvestia". The nationwide survey was conducted among visitors to cinemas in cities with a million people from January 24 to 27 and from January 31 to February 3. Two thousand respondents took part in them.

Musical biopic about Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, which will be released in cinemas on February 14, topped the rating. The expectation index of this picture is 32.1 points. About what turned out to be "Prophet" with Yuri Borisov as a poet, "Izvestia" wrote recently.

Second place - the Russian-Chinese film "Red Silk". The main roles played by Milos Bikovich, Gleb Kalyuzhny, Elena Podkaminskaya, Gosha Kutsenko and Chinese actress Zheng Hanyi. The film will be released in Russian rental this week - February 20.

Expectations are fueled by a wide promotional campaign of the picture. "Red Silk" - a multi-genre picture, the creators emphasized this in the promotional materials, releasing three trailers in different directions: detective, action and adventure with notes of romance.

- This approach allows us to work with the expectations of the audience in a new way and in each video to present a different side of the movie, which combines such different but complementary genres - said "Izvestia" creative producer of the film Nikita Byrkin. - We bet on the fact that everyone will find something different: fans of Agatha Christie in addition to the investigation of the mystery will get a ton of action, and fans of adventure and romance will see a large-scale story in unusual detective conditions. Of course, we respect the viewer's expectations, but we need to play ahead of the curve to surprise them. For this reason, we decided not to show many scenes in advertising until the premiere.

Closes the top three leaders fantastic action movie "Kraken" Nikolai Lebedev. In the rating of expectations of domestic releases also "War and Music", "Captain Hook", "The Wizard of Emerald City. The Wicked Witch," "We are giving birth," "Manyunya. Ba's Birthday," "North Pole" and "Palm 2" (their expectation index ranges from 3.2 to 0.9 points).

- High ratings are often shown by franchises when people already know that it is quality content and are waiting for the next part, realizing that they will get a good experience. Thus, the rating shows that people are waiting for the continuation of "The Wizard of Emerald City" - despite the premiere date in two years, - explained "Izvestia" general director of Wanta Group Maria Scherbal.

According to her, the current situation at the box office is atypical, as there is a clear leader. The expert believes that the non-triviality of the moment is added by the fact that the main actor Yura Borisov became an Oscar nominee. This also further fuels expectations.

What premieres are not interested in viewers

At the same time, according to the result of the study, the Russian viewer who regularly goes to the movies, knows almost nothing about other upcoming big movie premieres. For example, the rating did not include the films "Pinocchio", "Summer will end" - the winner of the festival "Mayak" with the same Yura Borisov, the biopic "Rodnina", "Gorynych", "Major in Dubai", "The Aviator" based on the novel by Evgeny Vodolazkin and others.

According to the head of the Association of Cinema Owners (AVC) Alexei Voronkov, the awareness of viewers is influenced, among other things, by a stable schedule of films.

- In more stable times, we, together with our distributors, understood a year in advance when Russian movies, foreign movies, and Hollywood movies were coming out. In 2019-2020, almost all cinemas, distribution companies, had budgets that allowed them to look a year ahead. In 2022, the planning horizon dropped to two weeks, a month at most. Now that planning horizon is growing a little bit. We knew about when "The Prophet" would be released a year ago," said the head of AVC.

In the rating of the most anticipated foreign films, the first place is occupied by the Turkish melodrama "Leave it to the wind" with the star of TV series Hande Erchel. Also in the rating - "Shrek 5" and "Avatar 3", the release of which is scheduled for 2026 and 2025.

According to film critic Sergey Sychev, the rating of expectations indicates that the modern viewer is poorly informed about upcoming big releases. Or knows about them, but doesn't expect them because he doesn't like the promos.

- We are talking about viewers who go to the movies, that is, they watch trailers before the sessions, see advertisements in theaters and probably follow the novelties on the Internet. But the results of the study show that, firstly, no one is waiting for the top Hollywood releases - "Captain America", "Snow White", "Mission: Impossible"; secondly - no one is not waiting for important Russian releases of mainstream and author's cinema - "The Summer Will End", "Daddy Died on Saturday"; thirdly - in the gap author's foreign cinema, even the most promoted - "Grand Tour", "All That We Seem Light", "Oh, Canada", "Showgirl", "The Secret in Her Eyes", "The End of the World", - says the expert.

According to him, even commercial releases that come out in a month or two, the public is little interested in: "Rodnina", "Particularly Dangerous Passenger", "Man and Woman", "Deniskin Stories", "Khoja Nasreddin", "Pretend to be My Husband". This means that the viewer is not prepared long in advance, does not give him the opportunity to follow the releases, to catch every detail. Although those who do this, are sure to be rewarded, it is clearly seen in the collection and resonance of the movies, believes Sergei Sychev.

AVC head Alexei Voronkov recalled that the day before it became known about the release in Russia action movie "Ballerina" with Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves from the franchise about John Wick. He emphasized that a month ago, no one assumed that it would be possible to agree on the Russian distribution of this film.

- Previously, it was impossible to imagine that a foreign movie came to Russia in a month and a half. Here it is necessary to put a monument to the distributors who have time to agree on legal distribution, then quickly - for a month - to get a rental certificate, translate the movie into Russian and give the audience. - says the expert.

People should not lose the habit of going to the movies, we need a flywheel that is constantly working, and once or twice a month gives out significant projects, added the head of the association.