September 12, 2023

Not Even Russia Is Immune from "Barbenheimer"


Not Even Russia Is Immune from "Barbenheimer"
Barbie shaking hands with Oppenheimer in a Hollywood studio. Jordan, Twitter.

Against Hollywood and the Russian government's wishes, the two most viewed movies of 2023, Barbie and Oppenheimer, have arrived at Moscow and St. Petersburg theaters.

To evade restrictions, a Moscow movie theater will sell tickets to the Mattel doll's movie under the name of a different film, Speed Dating, while Christopher Nolan's biopic of Oppenheimer is being sold alongside the Russian animated movie Dubak ("Extreme Cold"). 

After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Hollywood studios left the Russian market, as did countless other Western businesses. As such, Barbie and Oppenheimer do not have official distribution in Russia. However, Yandex.Afisha reported that Oppenheimer had already screened in theaters in Rostov, Yakutsk, Ulan-Ude, Krasnoyarsk, and other cities earlier this month.

The war has forced Russian cinemas to become creative when screening Hollywood blockbusters. Many movie theaters sell tickets to short films and show a foreign picture shortly after "for free." Others rent out their screening rooms to third-party companies or subsidiaries, who then project the Hollywood movies. 

Vice-Speaker of the State Duma Vladislav Davankov has also felt the "Barbenheimer" fever. The legislator asked the Ministry of Culture to show the two American films in Russia without permission from copyright holders. The Ministry denied his request, alleging the movies were against "Russian traditional values."

Dubak premiered in Moscow theaters on September 7. Speed Dating will open in theaters on September 17.

 

 

You Might Also Like

Leave or Die
  • August 15, 2023

Leave or Die

In which we visit a "typical" Siberian town and dig into the issues and people who live there.
A Shortage of Drugs
  • August 23, 2023

A Shortage of Drugs

Nearly 200 medications could vanish from the Russian market due to sanctions and isolation.
A Video Song-Apology
  • August 16, 2023

A Video Song-Apology

Three waterpark employees in Crimea were fined and forced to sing "Vladimir Putin is Great" after dancing to a Ukrainian song.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

Faith & Humor
December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices
May 01, 2013

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
November 01, 2012

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

Murder at the Dacha
July 01, 2013

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

A Taste of Chekhov
December 24, 2022

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955