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bne February 2019 Eastern Europe I 71
But apart from the one-off factors, cin- ema has been growing pretty steadily.
It restarted in 1997, according to Zinya- kova, with the opening of the legendary Kodak Kinomir on Pushkin Square about 15mins away from Novy Arbat.
It was the first western style cinema in Russia showing international blockbust- ers and serving outsized portions of popcorn and coke.
“In those years the growth of the cinema business was the biggest of all sectors
in the Russian economy, rising by 300% each year,” says Zinyakova. “But even the growth over the last five years has been good, at least 10% a year.
Still, the sector remains highly frag- mented. The top five chains control only 30% of the market, so 70% of the market is made up of single cinemas or small chains with a few cinemas each scat- tered across the regions.
Retail developed the same way but once a few leaders appear they start consoli- dating the sector until a few dominant groups appear. That process has come to an end in supermarket chains, but it is only now getting going in cinemas.
“The consolidation has already started,” says Zinyakova. “In 2017 the two biggest chains were consolidated into one – Cinema Park and Formula Kino
– which is the biggest chain in terms of the number of screens and cinemas. In second place is KinoMax and then Karo.”
Zinyakova says Karo’s investors, which include UFG Private Equity, the biggest private equity fund in Russia, are con- sidering expansion through acquisition, but if cinemas follow the same path as supermarkets then it will take many years to complete the process.
“The market needs a consolidation. There are chains that are planning to expand but others have gone bank- rupt,” says Zinyakova. “The pressure on the smaller chains is very high right now. It is not just a question of the rent but also maintaining the equipment as the cost of that is all in dollars. It will happen but not soon.”
Two out of three Russians regret the fall of the Soviet Union
bne IntelliNews
Two out of three Russians (66%) regret the fall of the Soviet Union, the highest level in the last decade, according to a new poll from independent pollster the Levada Center, Vedomosti reported on December 19.
Previously in 2017 a still hefty 58% of Russians regretted the fall of the USSR, and in the preceding decade the number did not rise above 61%. The highest level ever recorded was in 2000 when three quarters of Russians (75%) said the collapse of the Soviet Union was a bad thing.
Some 60% of respondents in the latest poll believe that the collapse could have been avoided, which is also at a 13-year high. The majority of those who are nostalgic for the USSR are people over 55 years old, although in the past two years these sentiments have grown among young people aged 18-24 as well.
The main reasons Russians give for their regret is the collapse of the single economic system (52%), the loss of a sense of belonging to a great power (36%) and the growth of mutual distrust and bitterness (31%).
Levada Center’s Karina Pipia says the recent pension reform has become a trigger for the growth of such sentiments: “People always explain their nos- talgia for the USSR mainly with irrational ideas about the strong economy and prosperity of those times, forgetting about the deficit and the sanctions, especially against the background of growing concerns about current welfare issues.”
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