During the long days of the autumn school holiday, DreamWorks animated blockbuster Madagascar: Escaðe 2 Africa burst triumphantly onto the scene. The film sequel to the ðoðular Madagascar, which in 2005 grossed $7.59 million for its distributor UIP. This world premiere for the Madagascar sequel – it comes out in the US a week later – turned out to be far ahead of all competition, seizing the leading position in the box office chart and setting three records. Its 841 screens yielded $16,361,057, making it the highest-grossing foreign film ever in CIS distribution, the highest-grossing animated film in CIS distribution ever and UPI’s highest-grossing film.

The absolute record for an opening weekend in dollar terms is held by The Very Best Film (Caroprokat), which grossed $16,484,460 in its first four days in January. If we compare the two films in ruble terms, then Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa breaks the record – 441,748,552 rubles versus 403,869,260 for The Very Best Film. There were 2,984,580 admissions sold for the Madagascar sequel in its opening weekend, while the popular Russian comedy had 2,697,786 admissions. Another interesting statistic – the average price for a ticket to Madagascar 2 was $5.48, while for The Very Best Film it was $6.11. In addition, one dollar per the MICEX exchange rate is now equivalent to 27 rubles, while during the release of The Very Best Film, it was 24.5 rubles.

The second Madagascar’s per-screen average was naturally also magnificent – $19,454; nevertheless, it did not set any records. It goes without saying that this was the best result of all of the films of the week.

In second place, Andrei Kravchuk’s historical biopic Admiral (20^th Century Fox CIS) held its ground, grossing $1,125,406 in its fourth weekend from 655 screens (67% less than in its third), for a total of $31,317,231 in 25 days, thereby rising to the third spot on the list of highest grossing films in the CIS. It was second only to two other Russian blockbusters – Irony of Fate: The Sequel (20^th Century Fox CIS) and Day Watch (Gemini), the total grosses of which were $49.91 million and $31.97 million respectively.

Last week’s leader, the Mark Wahlberg actioner Max Payne (20^th Century Fox CIS), dropped down to third place, grossing $769,069 from 504 screens (a 78% drop), for an 11-day total of $5,346,580. David Hackl’s horror sequel Saw V (Cascade), with Tobin Bell and Costas Mandylor debuted in fourth place. Its 200 screens brought it $747,350. For comparison, the first Saw film (Film Accord) earned $260,000 in 2004, Saw II (Gemini) grossed $1.02 million in 2005, Saw III (Gemini) took $2.49 million in 2006 and Saw IV (Cascade) cashed out at $2 million in 2008.

One other new film made it into the top ten – Gil Kenan’s City of Ember (West), based on the eponymous novel by Jeanne Dupreau. The film, starring Bill Murray and Saoirse Ronan in the lead roles, put $166,550 from 136 screens into its piggybank and took eighth place.

Three other new films were outside the top ten – in 23^rd place was Natalya Petrova-Bronshtein’s $1.2 million drama The Bet [Pari] (Central Partnership), starring Anatoly Beliy and Viktor Verzhbitsky ($5,789 from seven screens); in 29^th place, Asif Kapadia’s British-French adventure-drama Far North (Russky Reportazh), starring Michelle Yeoh and Sean Bean and in 49^th place, Siu-Tung Ching’s historical Hong Kong actioner An Empress and the Warriors (Premium), starring Donnie Yen (one screen, $311).

In addition to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, the $1 million mark was overcome this week by the Vladimir Yepifantsev actioner Man of the East, which grossed $1,269,251 in 11 days. These films’ addition to the “millionaire’s club” bring the total number of such films to 126.

Total CIS box office from October 30 to November 2 was $20,502,245, which is 68.4% higher than the figure for the previous weekend.