Made in Russia

All regions
ENG
Experts

Lenfilm CEO calls cinema an engine for business development and promotion of territories

51
Lenfilm CEO calls cinema an engine for business development and promotion of territories

At the moment, films are not the best way to invest even taking into account the box office returns, but the film industry forms a related business and helps to promote the regions. This opinion was expressed by Fyodor Scherbakov, General Director of Lenfilm, at a session of the Eastern Economic Forum.

"Indeed, the world tendency is that a film itself, considering box office receipts and so on, is not the best story about investment, but everything around cinema is a great business, because cinema in the modern world is becoming primarily a marketing. Amusement parks and merchandising are springing up around every movie, and children's toys are being sold for billions. It is the cinema that is becoming the driving force behind these processes," he said.

In addition, the films become "one of the engines of the promotion of the territory," Shcherbakov added, explaining that the places where films were filmed later become "pilgrimage points" for tourists. As an example, he cited the city of Dubrovnik, which attracted additional tourists after the filming of the TV series "Game of Thrones. Therefore, according to Shcherbakov, regional authorities should be interested in such projects.

However, in this context, he also pointed to the problematic side of filming in remote areas of Russia - the high cost of content creation, and this is the reason why today most filming is carried out in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

"Today any producer will think 10 times where it is more profitable to shoot because of limited resources. Of course, he will decide to shoot where there is all the infrastructure. <...> Regions have to fight for this. When we talk about rebate (tax refunds - editorial note), this is, of course, a good tool for investing not in how good the film will be, but in the promotion of the area. In fact, it is the advertising budget of the region", - said the head of Lenfilm.

Shcherbakov called film festivals another "powerful promotional tool". "Now it is limping because of the pandemic. For instance, on Sakhalin the "Region of Light" festival has been suspended due to its financing", - he said.

The Eastern Economic Forum takes place in Vladivostok from the second to the fourth of September. The main theme of this year's event is "New Opportunities for the Far East in a Changing World". The forum is organised by Roscongress.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Author: Ksenia Gustova

0