Like most places in the world, Russia’s silver screens are dominated by Hollywood’s global blockbusters. Russia’s film industry has struggled with the financial crisis, but is also capable of producing films that can occasionally compete locally with the American machine. Once a month, SRAS provides a lineup of the top five movies in Russia by box office take—with the official Russian-language trailers from YouTube and, for those Russian films on the list, links to our Russian film site.
Below are films listed with their English and Russian titles (note that they differ sometimes), as well as how much the film has earned over the calendar month.
1. Морской бой—Battleship—$17.2m
The Russians have chosen to take this action title to something a bit more action-oriented. “Морской бой” would actually be “Sea Battle” if directly translated back to English.
2. Титаник 3D—Titanic 3D—$13.2m
James Cameron’s epic romance makes it big in Russia for a second time…
3. Американский пирог: Все в сборе—American Pie: Reunion—$11.8m
Although Russia has a very strong tradition of classmates (odnoklassniki) staying in close contact after graduation, Russia does not have a strong class reunion tradition (perhaps because classmates stay in contact so well). Thus, the Russian title, rather than reference a “reunion” specifically, goes with “все в сборе,” meaning simply that “all are assembled.”
4. Мачо и ботан—21 Jump Street—$5m
As Russians didn’t have 21 Jump Street in their youth, the name carries no marketing power for them. Thus, a more straightforward comedic title has been applied. Мачо и ботан means roughly: “Macho Man and the Geek.”
5. Шпион—The Spy (Rus)—$4.5m
