Movie theaters in Russia are now forced to rescreen movies like the nine-year old ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio.Ian Gavan/Getty Images American studios have stopped releasing new films in Russia.As a result, movie theaters have been rerunning old Hollywood blockbusters and Chinese action films.In late May, the hottest movie in Russia was the 2013 hit “The Wolf of Wall Street,” per the WSJ.Sign up for our weekday newsletter, packed with original analysis, news, and trends — delivered right to your inbox.Nearly a decade after it was released, “The Wolf of Wall Street” is having a moment in Russia.
Sweeping international sanctions, boycotts, and a corporate exodus are hitting Russia’s consumer economy as businesses draw down on inventories.Movie theaters in Russia have taken to rerunning old Hollywood blockbusters and premiering Chinese action films after several major American studios halted operations and stopped releasing new films in the country, according to a Guardian report from May 20.
The situation is so bad that the hottest movie in Russia in late May was the “The Wolf of Wall Street,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
The 2013 Martin Scorsese movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio was about excess and corruption on Wall Street.
Attendance at one chain of movie theaters in Russia has fallen 70% to 80% since the country invaded Ukraine on February 24, its owner — who did not want to be identified — told the Journal.
“We will be lucky if we make it till autumn without shutting down,” the manager of a popular movie theater told the Guardian.
“People simply don’t want to go to see ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ for the fifth time.”
Overall, Russia’s economy appears to be holding up.The commodity powerhouse could still rake in $800 million a day from oil and gas alone this year, Bloomberg Economics reported this week.But reports also show Russian consumers are starting to face challenges in the economic landscape, and entertainment is not the only sector that’s been hit.Auto parts are also scarce and dealers in Russia can now sell new cars that are not equipped with air bags or anti-lock brakes, per the Journal.
There’s also a supply crunch in toilets and sinks.
President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that 2022 will be a difficult year for Russia, but rejected the notion that all of the country’s economic issues were linked to the war, which it calls a “special military operation,” Reuters reported on May 25.
Putin has hiked the country’s minimum wage and pensions by 10% to help counter soaring inflation amid hard-hitting sanctions over the Ukraine war, according to the news agency.
“The government is trying to soften the blow, but that’s all they can do,” Ivan Fedyakov, a chief executive at St.Petersburg-based consulting firm INFOLine, told the Journal.”They cannot reverse the situation, so we will inevitably see an economic slowdown, a reduction in consumer spending, and a general worsening of most economic indicators.”
In April, the World Bank said the Russian economy is expected to contract 11.2% in 2022, marking its worst economic contraction in three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union..