Film exports: Russian animation popular abroad
2024-08-26
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[Global Times Comprehensive Report] Russian film overseas distribution revenue rose from US$8.5 million in the first half of 2023 to US$14.2 million in the same period this year. China is the main export market, and Russian film distribution revenue in China is about US$2 million, most of which comes from animation. Due to the development of horror films, Russian film overseas revenue will increase by 5%-8% this year. Analysts believe that insufficient film market promotion may become an obstacle.
The Hermitage Cats animation
According to the Film Distributors' Gazette, the foreign revenue of Russian films increased by 67% in the first half of this year, from $8.5 million to $14.2 million, of which only $3.1 million was earned in the second quarter. The Film Distributors' Gazette said that in the same period, German films earned $18 million abroad and Italian films earned $20.4 million. The animated film "Masha and the Bear" maintained its first place ($2.8 million), with most of its revenue coming from Mexico ($712,000), Brazil ($554,000) and Peru ($352,000). In second place was the animated film "The Cats of the Hermitage" ($2.1 million). The film directed by Vasily Rowinsky was most popular in Belgium ($751,000) and Spain ($673,000). "The Snow Queen 5: The Melting Ice War" is an animated film jointly produced by Voronezh Studio (formerly Wizart Animation Studio) and CTB Films. The film earned $2 million from foreign distribution. The total foreign revenue of all animated films was about $11 million, accounting for 77.6% of the total foreign revenue of Russian films in the first half of this year.
Meanwhile, domestic films with domestic distribution revenues exceeding 1 billion rubles (about 78 million yuan) are not very popular abroad, such as the feature film "Challenge" and the comedy "Serf 2". The former's overseas distribution revenue was $539,000, mainly from China ($515,000), and the film was also released in 16 other countries. "Serf 2" ranks tenth in the list of Russian films with the highest overseas revenues, with a total revenue of $399,000 and a total of 24 countries. The main overseas market for Russian films is China, with a total revenue of about $2 million. Last year, France was the leader in this indicator, with a total revenue of $12 million. This year's revenue in China mainly came from the animated film "Frozen 5: The Melt", which was about $1.3 million. The second country in terms of overseas revenue for Russian films is Brazil, with $1.2 million. There are two other countries with overseas revenues exceeding $1 million, namely Italy and Mexico. The Gulf countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman) also made it into the top five, where Russian films had a total revenue of $879,000.
Experts from the "Free Finance" investment company said: "Promoting Russian film and television works is an important task to strengthen our country's cultural and economic strength." Experts said that actively promoting Russian films will not only help improve people's cultural living standards, but also contribute to national economic growth.
Kolesov, director of the new technology department of the consulting company J'Son & Partners, believes that the reason why animation is popular outside Russia is easy to explain: "Because movies can change the names or images of characters, scenes and dialogues according to the specific characteristics of the country of distribution." Modestova, general manager of the "Content Export" company, believes that feature films such as "Serf 2" and "Challenge" are unfamiliar to foreign audiences due to cultural differences. Animation market experts predict that Russian film overseas revenue is expected to grow by 5%-8% in 2024. Modestova said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, exports accounted for 20% of Russian animation profits, and now this figure has risen to 30%. Modestova believes that the overall low popularity of Russian films abroad may be related to insufficient market promotion, because "our films are released without advertising budgets." Russian films must compete with Hollywood films on the same stage to win the favor of audiences, and the latter's promotion budgets are increasingly exceeding the production budgets. Modestova took the movie "Barbie" as an example, saying that the film's advertising costs were $150 million and the production costs were $145 million.
This article is published in the "Perspective on Russia" special issue of the Global Times, and the content is provided by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
