A record-breaking year-over-year movie theater attendance figure was registered in April in Russia, which was mainly achieved thanks to the release of new installments in the Fast & Furious and Avengers franchises.
Last month, 15.5 million admissions were registered in Russia, a 40 percent increase from the April 2014 figure and the highest number of admission for any month in the past five years, reported the analytical company Movie Research.
According to Move Research, attendance was mainly driven by the releases of the highly anticipated Hollywood movies Furious 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron and the local military drama Bitva za Sevastopol (Battle for Sevastopol).
While the release of the two Hollywood blockbusters drove down local films’ share to just 8.3 percent toward the end of the month, overall, Russian releases did relatively well in April, accounting for 26.2 percent of the total box office.
Furious 7 grossed $31.8 million (1.6 billion rubles) in Russia and is the year’s highest-grossing movie to date. Avengers: Age of Ultron is in seventh place with a gross of $16.9 million (852 million rubles), according to the movie database KinoPoisk.
April’s total box-office gross amounted to 4 billion rubles, a 45 percent increase from April 2014 and a 3.6 increase from this March, Movie Research said.
