Canadian IMAX left Russia

The company left the Russian market on June 1, said Roman Isaev, member of the Board of the Association of Cinema Owners. In RUSSIA, IMAX owned approximately 50 cinema halls,

The Canadian company IMAX, which provides the cinema system of the same name, has left the Russian market since June 1. This was reported to TASS by a member of the Board of the Association of Cinema Owners Roman Isaev.

“I am ready to confirm that the IMAX corporation left Russia, the last day of its official representation and work here was May 31. All employees were fired - accordingly, the management of the corporation (represented by the vice president for Eastern Europe, India and the Middle East, who was based in Moscow) moved to London. From June 1, 2022, IMAX Corporation no longer operates in Russia, ”he said.

Earlier, the author of Kommersant, Anna Afanasyeva, wrote in her TELEGRAM channel “Camera, ax!” that IMAX had ceased to do business in Russia. According to her, employees were reduced by agreement of the parties on June 1.

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In the Russian market, IMAX owned about 50 screens, which in the last five years provided about 3% of the total revenue.

Vedomosti learned about the refusal of cinemas to pay Hollywood studios

After the start of a military special operation in Ukraine, the largest American film companies refused to release their premieres in Russian distribution. In 2021, out of 40.7 billion rubles. almost 75% of box office receipts were provided by foreign films. In June, Vedomosti, citing its own sources, reported that Russian cinema chains had stopped paying Universal, Disney, Warner Bros., Sony and companies representing their interests in Russia for films that had already been released.

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According to the Unified Automated Information System (UAIS) of the Cinema Fund, the number of visitors to Russian cinemas for the rental week that began on June 30 and ended on July 6 was only 800 thousand, which is comparable to the minimum figures of October-November 2021, when the authorities introduced a lockdown from - for the spread of covid-19 .

In order to attract viewers, some Russian cinemas in mid-June even decided to release the new Batman, the Russian release of which Warner Bros. canceled the day before the premiere. The owners of cinema chains said that such a step is absolutely legal: Russian cinemas signed an agreement with Universal Pictures Russia for a public demonstration of Batman in February 2022, showed announcement videos and distributed advertising at their own expense, and the Ministry of Culture issued a rental certificate to the film. However, this did not help the box office: the total box office in Russia for three weeks barely exceeded 41 million rubles.