The highest-grossing domestic film in the history of Russian film distribution, the comedy Kholop (The Peasant), was officially sold to Chinese distributors. The picture will be shown on one of the major video sharing services in the People’s Republic of China - the online cinema IQIYI. The release date is still to be confirmed.
The film was made by the production studio Yellow, Black & White (YBW Films), the film company MEM Cinema, and the group of companies KIT (part of Gazprom-Media Holding) with the participation of Rossiya 1 TV channel and the support of Super TV channel (part of Gazprom-Media). The Holding’s company Central Partnership is responsible for the international distribution of the film.
Kholop has earned more than 2.83 billion rubles at the Russian box office so far, according to the Russian Cinema Fund’s Analytics. More than 10.6 million viewers have already watched the film and it has taken a confident lead at the box office since its release, not only in Russia, but also abroad. As of today, the film’s international earnings have exceeded $1.3 million.
In Germany, film distributor KinoKartina TV released Kholop in local theaters, while Stars Media did the same in Serbia and fellow countries of the former Yugoslavia. Kholop has become the highest-grossing Russian film that has ever been released in Germany, while in Serbia, the film has maintained second place among all Russian releases. Kholop was also shown in Israel, the Baltic states and a number of European countries. The film is still available to moviegoers in these countries.