Yelena Drapeko, deputy chairwoman of the State Duma Committee on Culture, believes the Ministry of Internal Affairs should intervene in the situation regarding screenings of foreign films in Russian cinemas without distribution certificates and the consent of rights holders. She stated this in a conversation with NSN on August 25. This concerns, in particular, the film 'Spider-Man: The New Day,' which is being shown as part of pre-screening services.
The lawmaker gave the precise wording: "I think the Ministry of Internal Affairs should intervene in this situation, as it concerns illegal entrepreneurship. This is a criminally punishable act. The Ministry of Internal Affairs should track this situation. The Ministry of Culture can monitor what is happening through its subordinate organizations. They do not submit data to the EAIS because the film is being distributed illegally. This information can quite easily be forwarded to law enforcement."
EAIS is the Unified Automated Information System for recording ticket sales in cinemas, where cinemas are required to submit data on every officially sold ticket.
How the Scheme Works
Tickets are formally sold for short films with a valid distribution certificate — for example, for 'Farewell.' Before the screening of such a short film, a foreign new release, which has not officially been distributed in Russia, is shown in the auditorium.
According to NSN, 'Spider-Man: The New Day' earned nearly 900 million rubles in its first weekend of unofficial distribution. Since the film is shown outside the official system, earnings are estimated based on the difference between the overall box office figures of cinemas and the data submitted to the EAIS.
What Threatens Violators
- Criminal liability under Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — in cases of damage exceeding 500,000 rubles
- Administrative liability — in less significant cases
- Civil liability to rights holders
Drapeko believes the Ministry of Culture is capable of tracking such screenings through its subordinate organizations and transferring the data to law enforcement. Currently, information about the scale of shadow distribution comes mainly from box office revenue calculations, not from the official EAIS statistics.
AI Opinion
From the perspective of data analysis, the situation with 'Spider-Man' is not an isolated case but part of a trend that the state has been tracking for a year. Back in August 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a decision to grant the Ministry of Culture the authority to investigate shadow film distribution — this shows the topic has been discussed at the government level for significantly longer than the story of one film.
The macroeconomic connection here is obvious: the higher the prices for official tickets and the rarer Hollywood premieres are, the more attractive the gray scheme is for the cinemas themselves — these earnings directly compete with the distribution of domestic cinema. A technical nuance that remains off-screen: the EAIS system physically does not record such screenings, so damage assessment is based on the difference in box office figures, not on direct data from the registry. Whether this initiative remains declarative or results in real criminal cases is a question, the answer to which will appear in the coming months.
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