The past few years have seen a spectacular increase in the share of Russian movies in the box-office proceeds of all screened productions. The number was just 5.5% in 2003, but it surged to 16% in 2004, Dondurei said. He also cited figures that Nikita Mikhalkov, president of the Moscow Film Festival, had revealed when opening this year's event a week ago: Russian-made films are expected to gross $370 million this year and $500 million next year. As recently as a decade ago, Russian film productions brought in just $8 million.
Another statistic Dondurei cited is the shrinking proportion of U.S. productions in the world. Hollywood's box-office receipts have been hovering around $9 billion in the past few years, he said.
"National film industries are blooming. They are beginning to make blockbusters, arthouse [pictures] and mainstream [movies]. In most European countries, the national industries, the plots, the directors and the national myths are beginning to compete with the Americans," he said. "In terms of box-office receipts, this is a favorable situation for us as well, but only if we learn how to film different movies."
