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 still capable of occasionally putting out a film that can 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, additional commentary taken from the Russian Modern Film page of our Library.
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. «Третий лишний» - Ted - $16.1m
This racy American comedy has changed its name for Russian markets to "The Third Wheel."
2. «Неудержимые 2» - The Expendables 2 - $14.1m
The original film went to #1 in Russia when it was released in August, 2010. Note the interesting translation - the heros here have gone from "expendable" in English to "uncontrollable" in Russian.
3. «Вспомнить все» - Total Recall - $12.3m
This 80's action remake has also taken some liberty with the title which is now "Remember Everything."
4. «Темный рыцарь: Возрождение легенды» - The Dark Knight Rises - $8.9m (in August; total $17.1)
Faced with a potentially troublesome translation of «Темный рыцарь восходит,» which could mean "The Dark Knight Rises" or "The Dark Knight Grows in Volume" or perhaps «Темный рыцарь встает» (The Dark Knight Stands), the Russian distributors for the latest Batman installment chose to color outside the lines and chose to render the title as "The Dark Knight: The Legend Returns," pointing out that this a continuation of the previous film.
5. «Ледниковый Период 4: Континентальный Дрейф» - Ice Age 4: Continental Drift - $7.2m (in August; total $47.9)
This fourth installment of the popular Ice Age series has been heavily advertised in Russia, with some movie theatres in Moscow handing out stickers with all tickets and several cross-advertising efforts including billboards with the cartoon characters helping sell everything from cars to water filters.
