Must-see premieres hit silver screens

Nationwide cinemas are offering more and more must-see premiere screenings for cinephiles every weekend, some of them awaited by fans for a long period of time. BR talked with the biggest film distributors from Romania to find out what their “best-selling” film was in 2015 and what the “must-see movies” of 2016 are.

Oana Vasiliu

Although the lists of the premieres for 2016 are not final and are continuously improving with new blockbusters, BR managed to figure out what will be on the silver screen. But first, let’s look back at 2015.

The Force Awakens spurred Romanian film lovers to go to the cinema, being nominated as the movie of the year in Romania in 2015, after registering ticket sales of more than EUR 2.5 million (more than RON 11.3 million) in Romanian cinemas and with over 510,000 spectators, said Forum Film representatives on January 11, 2016. In terms of revenues, Star Wars surpassed Fast and Furious 7 (distributed by RoImage 2000,) which made RON 11.2 million last year, while in third place is the animation Minions (distributed by RoImage 2000,) with total revenues of RON 8.15 million. Next, Spectre (distributed by Forum Film) made RON 6.3 million and Fifty Shades of Grey (distributed by RoImage 2000,) RON 5.7 million.

2016’s expectations

Read more about

JT Grup Oil announces the launch of an IPO of 10,000,000 new ordinary shares issued following a share capital increase operation

read more

To get a film critic’s eye, Business Review asked Stefan Dobroiu, senior editor at Cinemagia, the most important Romanian film news platform, about 2016’s premieres. Dobroiu bets on Kung Fu Panda 3 (premiere March 18,) Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (premiere March 25,) Angry Birds (May 13,) Warcraft (June 10,) Independence Day: Resurgence (June 24,) Finding Dory (June 26,) Suicide Squad (August 8,) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (November 18,) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (premiere December 16) and Assassin’s Creed (premiere December 23). “Most probably the end of 2016 will change the box office’s tops due to the release of Assassin’s Creed and Star Wars: Rogue One, two of the most expected films of this year,” concluded Stefan Dobroiu.

On the other hand, the film distributors have their own bets. Forum Film told BR that their high expectations come from The Hateful Eight, currently in cinemas, Zootropolis, The Jungle Book, Captain America: Civil War, Alice Through The Looking Glass, Finding Dory and Star Wars: Rogue One. Also, Freeman Entertainment will bring to the silver screens this year some of Warner Bros. “must-see”: Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Legend of Tarzan, Suicide Squad and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Odeon Cineplex distributors said that The Revenant, currently in cinemas, will be in top, followed by Kung Fu Panda 3, X-Men, Independence Day: Resurgence, Ice Age and Assassins’ Creed.