Ukrainian films gain increasing share in national box office despite ongoing war

Despite Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the share of domestic films at the national box office reached 27%, and Ukrainian content is being bought for broadcasting in other countries.

Viktoria Yarmoshchuk, general director of the film production and distribution company FILM.UA Group, said this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, Rubryka reports.

What is the problem?

According to known statistics, the box office of Ukrainian films collected 6.4% of the total in 2020. Today, as Yarmoshchuk emphasized, the war, the economic crisis, the retraining of film specialists in the military, and the brain outflow abroad have created "unprecedented difficulties" for the Ukrainian film industry.

What is the solution?

At the same time, 2022 proved that the Ukrainian film industry could develop even under such conditions, Yarmoshchuk added.

How does it work?

According to her, according to this year's results year, the share of Ukrainian cinema at the national box office reached an outstanding 27%. In five months of 2023, the box office in Ukraine reached over 800 million hryvnias, of which over 215 million hryvnias were collected from distributing Ukrainian films.

"Of course, the selection of foreign films is a little narrower at the moment, but blockbusters still come to Ukraine. That's why such a significant jump to 27% is not coincidental. It's a trend that people consciously choose their films," the expert explained.

Yarmoshchuk noted that this year Ukrainian TV series appeared on Netflix. There are also cases, although not yet massive, of purchases of Ukrainian content over a wide area.

"The fact that Netflix began to buy more Ukrainian content shows that it began to believe more in Ukraine's prospects. This is an American corporation. It is absolutely about money, and this is not an act of support. They paid attention to us," the expert emphasized.

Among the films bought by Netflix for other territories, Yarmoshchuk named:

• Mad Wedding 3, which was purchased for the countries of Eastern Europe, including Ukraine,
• And There Will Be People is available for viewing in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, and Slovakia territories.

On June 14, the comedy Luxembourg, Luxembourg was presented on Netflix, and on June 22, the premiere of the drama Pamphyr will take place on the platform.

The animation film Mavka. Forest Song became the highest-grossing Ukrainian film. The cartoon collected 81,848,415 hryvnias in three weekends, with 642,671 viewers watching it. In May, the animated film Mavka. Forest Song was released in Ukrainian on the USA and Canada big screens.

Rubryka reported that three tenth-graders opened a movie theater in Eskhari, Kharkiv region, to help locals switch to Ukrainian.

The Culture vs. War project released the first documentary film, which tells the story of the band Antytila musicians who left their everyday lives and stood up for the defense of Ukraine.