Blockbuster History in the New Russia: Movies, Memory, and Patriotism

1. Introduction: Multiplexing Russia

Karo’s October Theater, New Arbat Street, 2008. Soviet symbols compete with Hollywood blockbusters. 1 The renovated October Theater on Moscow’s New Arbat Street is a nice place to watch a film. Owned and operated by the Karo Group, Russia’s largest multiplexer, October houses eleven state-of-the-art cinema halls, Karo’s offices, a video store, restaurants, and other commercial outlets. You can sit and have gelato or grab a cocktail before you watch your movie. The theater is also a battleground. October has clearly made the transition from a Soviet-era movie house into a post-Soviet multiplex, but in making this change, October and its fellow Karo multiplexes have become sites of contestation. These theaters are not just entertainment centers: they are the foci of heated debates about Russian national cinema , post-Soviet politics, and the state of patriotism. Founded in 1997, Karo Film first renovated the crown jewel of Russian cinema halls, the Rossiia [Russia] Theater on Moscow’s Pushkin Square. In 2000 it opened the first-ever Russian multiplex at Moscow’s first Ramstore (the Turkish-based mega supermarket chain). A year later, Karo unveiled its first multiplexes in St. Petersburg and Nizhnii Novgorod. By 2008, the company had built in Samara, Kazan´, and Kaliningrad , as well as in Moscow suburbs such as Podolsk and Mytishchi. The company boasts that it runs 34 modern multiplexes with 165 cinema halls, serving a capacity of 38,000. In total, 1.55 million Russians watch films on Karo screens each month.1 Multiplexing Russia I N T R O D U C T I O N 2 Blockbuster History in the New Russia Thesestatisticsareimpressive,allthemoresogiventhestateof Russiancinemain2000 .TheSovietfilmindustrywasonceoneof theworld’s largest, putting out 150 films per year. Soviet citizens once went to the movies more than any other people on earth—twenty times per annum per capita in the 1960s and 1970s.2 By 1996, average cinema attendance in the former Soviet Union had fallen thirty- to fortyfold: only one in four Russianswenttothemoviesonceperyear.Bythen,AmericanandEuropean films made up 75 percent of the movies shown on Russian screens. The state of Russian film, therefore, reflected the state of Russia itself: dilapidated, chaotic, and wistfully recalling its glory days. In 1996, however, the situation changed. Paul Heth of Eastman Kodak opened the first state-of-the-art cinema in Moscow. Heth named thecinema—locatedinanoldmoviehallnearPushkinSquare—Kodak KinoMir, orKodak Cinema World. The Cinema Worldmodel suggested that multiplexes could get Russians back to the movies: the theater sold out for nearly two years straight and the first film screened there, the Nicolas Cage blockbuster The Rock, brought lines of cinemagoers.3 It was right after Kodak’s success that Leonid Ogorodnikov founded Karo and funded the renovation of the Rossiia, which was renamed Pushkin Theater. “Intheearlynineties,”Ogorodnikovstates,“noonebelievedthatthe cinema industry could recover: all the cinemas were empty. Some were furniture parlors, others were car shops.”4 Buoyed by Heth’s success, Ogorodnikov got into the cinema business and plunged into the Rossiia project. The renovated Pushkin opened for the Moscow International Film Festival in 1997. Said Ogorodnikov, “[W]e analyzed the financial results [of Pushkin’s renovation] and came to the conclusion that [it] could be interesting and lucrative. So we decided to focus on theaters.” He admitted, “[W]e didn’t study this business: no one in the country held such knowledge.”5 By 2000, the Pushkin Theater had been visited by four million people, making it the most popular site to watch a film in Russia. ThemultiplexalonecouldnotgetRussiansbacktothetheaters.Nice halls with Dolby surround sound represented steps in the right direction , but what appeared on screen had to meet the spectators’ expectations . “While choosing the repertoire for our Company,” Ogorodnikov Introduction 3 stated, “we first look at the commercial expediency and commercial potential of the movie.” Karo Film held the Russian premieres of Hollywood blockbusters such as Titanic and Pearl Harbor. In September 1999, the company signed an agreement with Warner Brothers to distribute their films, which included the Matrix series, the Harry Potter series, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.6 The initial success of Karo and the return of the Russian spectator to theaterscame through screening Hollywood blockbusters in American-style multiplexes. Even popcorn and cola—quintessential American movie treats, but unavailable in Soviet movie houses—“became an indispensable feature of a modern Russian cinema visit.”7 Hollywood blockbusters may have brought people back, but they also...