Central Partnership was established 25 years ago in March 1996 and, in that time, we have undergone an incredible transformation from an unknown—but ambitious—newcomer into an industry leader and the largest film distributor in Russia. We have been part of Gazprom Media, one of the biggest media giants in Russia and Eastern Europe, since 2014 (joining the GPM KIT Group of Companies, which is part of Gazprom Media, in 2016).
Based on the results of 2020, Central Partnership’s share at the box office of domestic films reached 52%, which is just slightly lower than the record 58% it reached in 2019. Thus, we have retained our position as the leader in Russian film distribution. Moreover, we were the top distributor in 2020 in terms of earnings from all films, with a box office of more than 6 billion rubles and a share of 28.6%.
We have set multiple industry records and pioneered many innovative solutions and technological experiments, both in content production as well as distribution on Russian and foreign markets:
- Central Partnership has been an exclusive partner of Paramount Pictures since 2009, releasing all the Hollywood studio’s films to theaters with great success;
- We’re a pioneer in delivering content to movie theaters, having completely abandoned physical copies and becoming the first Russian distributor to transmit digitally through the internet and by satellite;
- We are also a leader in terms of cooperating with online services, gradually abandoning DVD distribution, which was becoming irrelevant on the fast-changing market, and becoming the first major copyright holder to offer films and shows from our media library for sale online;
- As an aggregator of EST and TVOD content for Apple and Google, we have been the leader in terms of uploading films in iTunes and Google Play since 2016;
- Three films that we released into movie theaters over the past few years are among the Top 5 box-office earners over the last decade. Two of these are the highest grossing films in the history of Russian film distribution (Kholop/The Peasant, at 3.1 billion rubles, and Dvizhenie Vverh/Going Vertical, at 3 billion rubles, according to Russian Cinema Fund’s Analytics);
- The blockbuster Going Vertical became the highest grossing Russian film at the worldwide box office, as well as the highest grossing Russian film ever at the Chinese box office, earning 14.3 million dollars with more than 3 million viewers.