Short film becomes box-office hit

A three-minute short film about an artists' workshop in the Tver region has become one of the major box-office successes in Russia in recent years, according to the website Verstka. The film has generated cumulative revenue of 800 million rubles (approximately 8 million euros) since 2024.

Hollywood exits Russian market

In 2022, five major American studios—Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Universal, and Paramount—left the Russian market in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. These studios previously accounted for 80% of the film sector in Russia.

Shadow exploitation industry emerges

To compensate for the loss of Western films, a "shadow exploitation" industry has formed over the past four years, according to Verstka's long investigation published at the beginning of October. This practice involves Russian viewers paying for tickets to official Russian films while cinemas show foreign films for free.

How the system works

The St. Petersburg-based website Fontanka describes the practice as viewers purchasing tickets for official Russian films—most often short films with a screening permit—while cinemas screen in advance for free a foreign novelty presented as "promotional material" or a "cinematic product." This allows the revenue from Russian viewers to be attributed to domestic films.

Foreign films benefit indirectly

The result is that money spent by Russian viewers on films such as Avatar, The Odyssey, or Spider-Man ends up being recorded in the revenue of Russian films, effectively subsidizing the screening of foreign content.