Expensive-green: "Christmas Trees 12" topped the Russian box office

The latest installment of the "Fir Trees" franchise ended its opening weekend in first place. The film earned 168 million rubles, which is more than a third of the entire Russian box office, while its closest competitor lagged behind by more than 100 million. At the same time, 400 thousand fewer tickets were bought over the weekend than in the previous one, and many new items seriously missed the audience, experts say. Izvestia analyzes the results of last weekend at the Russian box office.

How many "12 Christmas trees" were collected

The undisputed leader of this weekend is "Christmas Trees 12", one of the most successful film series in the history of Russian distribution. 168 million rubles is 13 million more than the previous "Christmas Trees" earned at the start in 2024. Then 345 thousand tickets were bought, this time — 353 thousand. The large—scale promotional campaign achieved its result - cinemas believed in the release, gave it a third of all the shows in the country, and people went to watch the adventures of their favorite and new characters.

— The result is excellent, slightly above the level of a year ago, but in this case it is not an indicator — the film will run for a long time, both before the holidays and during the holidays, — Olga Zinyakova, president of the KARO cinema chain, comments on the victory of the "Christmas Trees". — There is every chance to surpass the box office of the previous part. A sundress will determine a lot.

Usually, when there are significantly more sessions than competitors, this affects the overall average turnout, but even here the "Fir Trees" show a high figure — 14 people per session, no one in the top 5 is higher. True, there are 14 people at the "Illusion of Deception 3" sessions, but this is due to the fact that there are fewer sessions themselves, and people continue to go. Thus, the fourth place in the top of the weekend at "Illusion" speaks only about how much the public appreciated this product. This time, the film grossed 40 million, but its total box office is more than 1.7 billion rubles.

By and large, we can say that this is the most successful release on the Russian market this year: only "The Wizard of Oz" and "Finist" collected more, but they worked during the New Year holidays, so they can be excluded in this case. This is all the more remarkable because if you take the global box office, then "Illusion of Deception 3" has just dropped out of the top twenty there — it has been overtaken by new "Bad Guys". But in Russia, for some reason, it turned out that just such a movie was needed right now.

When will Avatar 3 be released?

The total number of tickets decreased this weekend. Last time it was 2 million, this time it was 1.6 million. It is logical to assume that with the success of "Christmas Trees", other releases did not receive enough audience attention, although the pre-screening figures show that people actively went to "Zveropolis 2". Perhaps he expected to see the new Avatar in the cinema, but, as you know, his screenings will begin only this week, and then not at all venues.

— People close their work and household issues, prepare for the New Year's Eve, not everyone has the opportunity to escape to the cinema for a cherished session, — Olga Zinyakova explains the decrease in audience activity. — At the end of this week, we will see an influx of visitors to the cinemas.

Last weekend's leader, "The Incredible Adventures of Shurik," dropped twice in fees. Now he is in second place, and he has 67 million rubles. However, its operating time and attendance are almost the same as those of the "Fir Trees", which means that cinemas and distributors have accurately calculated the audience potential of the product.

In third place is the comedy with Evgeny Tkachuk "Volchok", she has 46 million rubles. The "Illusion of deception" has already been mentioned in the fourth place, so we go straight to the fifth place. This is the new animated collection "Three cats. Time travel." He earned 38 million rubles, but it is worth noting that he has more viewers than even Volchok, according to this parameter, the release is in the top 3. There probably could have been even more if it hadn't been for "Zveropolis" and the Russian fairy tale "The Snowman". But this time is the case when the release was not sorted out, and he is not the only one.

"Catching the Monster, starring Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver, could have earned an order of magnitude more — it's the perfect movie to watch in a movie theater," Olga Zinyakova notes. — The film is visually fascinating. But the 18+ rating largely decided his fate, as did the synthetic genre — it would seem that the film is about the path of an adult and a child, but it is not suitable for a family trip to the cinema.

In a few days, as we noted above, "Avatar 3" will begin to be shown with pre-screening service, and new "Three Heroes and a Light Wedge" will be released for children, also part of their favorite movie series. On the first day of the new year, Pinocchio, one of the most anticipated films of the season and a potential box office record holder, starts.