The film Gogol. Nachalo (Gogol. The Beginning) earned more than 50 million rubles at the box office in its first day of release in Russia. This is the best start of the summer among all Russian films and the best start of the year among Russian films that were released on a weekday.
The film will be shown in all Russian cities over the coming weekend - 2,250 screens in 1,394 movie theaters. The total number of screenings will exceed 35,000, which is comparable to the popular Hollywood franchises, such as Transformers, Spiderman and Cars.
Gogol. Nachalo was the most anticipated film release of August. On August 31, the film was also released into cinemas in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia.
“For us, this result is a big victory. It is important to us also because these successful indicators will help us in negotiations that we are now conducting with foreign agents regarding the distribution of Gogol in foreign countries. We put an ambitious task ahead of ourselves to get foreign viewers acquainted with the legacy of Gogol, making the author and his works more popular across the world. Of course, a successful run in Russia and the CIS countries will affect the prospects of international distribution - this is clear confirmation that our experiment is truly attractive to the viewer,” said Valery Fyodorovich, producer of the film Gogol. Nachalo and the general manager of TV-3.
The film Gogol. Nachalo was shot by Sreda producer company. The young Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol is played by Aleksandr Petrov, while Oleg Menshikov plays the role of the detective Yakov Petrovich Guro. The film also features Yevgeny Stychkin, Taisiya Vilkova, Artyom Tkachenko and others. In the plot, a young scribe from St. Petersburg Nikolai Gogol and his boss, the brilliant metropolitan investigator Yakov Guro, come to Poltava to investigate the mysterious murders of young women. According to the rumours of frightened local residents, the culprit of the crimes is none other than the devil himself in the guise of a black horseman. It is here that Nikolai Gogol meets his love, who is destined to play a fateful role in his life.