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Lionsgate’s ‘Ballerina’ Sets Russia Release as Studios Say Cold War Thaw Is ‘Inevitable’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Lionsgate will become the first studio to resume distributing films in Russia after a three-year moratorium.
The move comes with hopes that the major studios will follow Lionsgate amid declining international box office revenues and anticipation that a Russia-Ukraine détente will be reached given that U.S. President Donald Trump has prioritized the matter in the early days of his second term. In February 2022, the public posturing from the major studios was much different, with the MPA expressing its “strongest support for Ukraine’s vibrant creative community” on behalf of members Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. Those companies all announced that they had paused business with Russia. Pre-pandemic, those numbers surged even higher, with Hollywood releases generating nearly $1 billion in box office revenue in 2019, making Russia the top European market that year for American movies, according to Olga Zinyakova, president of the Karo cinema chain.
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