MOSCOW (Russian Film Business Today) –On the weekend of March 20–23 Radio Day (Central Partnership), a new comedy created through the efforts of popular Quartet I comedy theater troupe, has been released to CIS cinemas. The $1.9 million Election Day, the previous film based on a Quartet I theater production, brought its distributor Caroprokat $6.2 million. The new film, which has a $2 million budget and was directed by Dmitry Dyachenko, started in the top slot of the box office chart, taking $2,569,947 off 407 screens in its first four days. The average take per print – $6314 – was the best of the films playing that week.

Last week’s leader, the prehistoric adventure 10,000 B.C. (Caro Premier) dropped to second place, grossing $2,111,584 from 536 screens in its second weekend (47% less than the first). Its 11-day total was $7 294 316. The animated film Horton Hears a Who! (20^th Century Fox CIS) went from second to third, putting $1,780,918 into its piggybank (a 40% drop) from 568 screens, for a total of $5,368,265 in 11 days.

American family fantasy The Spiderwick Chronicles (UPI), directed by Mark Waters and based on books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, made its debut in fourth place. The film, which stars Freddie Highmore as the Grace twins, grossed $1 646 779 from 434 screens. Anna Fletcher’s romantic comedy 27 Dresses, starring Katherine Heigl, debuted in the next slot down with $1 057 025 from 220 screens. There were two more newcomers in the top 10, and both were animated (let’s not forget that the weekend under report coincided with the spring school holidays). The French-German-Luxembourgeois co-production Dragon Hunters was in seventh place (Luxor; 319 screens, $703,569) and the Spanish-Italian Donkey Xote was in ninth (Pyramida; 150 screens, $202 396). Russia was the first country to release Dragon Hunters.

Renowned French filmmaker Claude Lelouch’s Crossed Tracks (Russky Reportazh), starring Dominique Pinon and Fanny Ardant made its debut in the 22^nd slot on the list, grossing $13,912 from four screens (it was released on Saturday). Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece My Neighbor Totoro (1988), released by RUSCICO on one screen, earned $2184.

Taking into account Radio Day, The Spiderwick Chronicles and 27 Dresses, all of which broke the $1 million barrier from the start, there are already 50 films that made more than $1 million this year.

Total CIS box office from 20–23 March was $11,658,037, which is 4.1% less than the figure for last week.