The film company
Central Partnership, which is part of Gazprom-Media, and the distribution
company Airmita Culture Development Co. agreed to the release of the film Dvizhenie
Vverh (Going Vertical) in China.
“Dvizhenie Vverh has shown record results for two months now and has become the highest-grossing domestic film in Russian cinemas. Now spectators in China will have the opportunity to watch an outstanding film about legendary Soviet athletes, about courage and the drive for victory. Over the past two years movies that are made in Russia are confidently winning the attention of foreign viewers. In 2017 we sold nine Russian films to 125 countries. For example, the distribution geography of the film Legenda o Kolovrate (Legend of Kolovrat) extends to 86 countries,” said Rafael Minasbekyan, general manager of the KIT group of companies, which are part of Gazprom-Media.
“Dvizhenie Vverh makes an even bigger impression than many of Hollywood’s movies about sport. Moreover, the film is based on real events, which can inspire an even greater response among viewers. Thus, I decided that Dvizhenie Vverh will be the most important project for us in 2018,” said Liang Du, director of Airmita Culture Development Co.
“The film has achieved incredibly high results on the film market in Russia, but this is not why we intend to give so much attention to its release. The Chinese film market is huge and unique, and success on home soil or in other countries is not always a guarantee of a successful release in China. But in the case of Dvizhenie Vverh, we are full of optimism because there are no films based on real events on our market right now, there are no outstanding and inspirational films about sport,” Liang Du added.
Earlier, a deal was signed to sell the rights to the release of Dvizhenie Vverh in Spain. The large distribution company Mediaset will act as the distributor there.
The film Dvizhenie Vverh, produced by Nikita Mikhalkov’s TRITE studio and Russia 1 television channel with the participation of the film company Central Partnership, went into wide release on December 28, 2017. It became the highest-grossing Russian film in the history of Russian and CIS film distribution, collecting more than 3 billion rubles in cinemas.