MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS Correspondent Yulia Bochkareva/. Previously, people living in remote villages on the banks of any northern river in Yakutia, whenever they wanted to see a new movie, had to drive hundreds of kilometers to the nearest district center, then to take a several-hour flight on an old Annushka (Antonov aircraft) to Yakutsk, paying more than 20,000 rubles ($216) for just a one-way ticket. The situation is changing finally - a developing network of cinemas in Yakutia's small villages offers films in high quality and on large screens.

From idea to implementation - one year

Yakutia's Extra Cinema Company, led by Pyotr Chiryaev, opens cinemas in small settlements. Two years earlier, Pyotr managed the Yakut Film Network, a regional film distributor, and he knows perfectly well that cinemas in the country operate mainly in large cities.

"There are 150,000 settlements in Russia. As of 2023, the country has 2,100 cinemas and 5,300 cinema halls. They are mostly in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities. At the same time, people living in small settlements, do not have the opportunity to watch movies," he said explaining the initiative.

From the economic point of view, the film industry depends first of all on fees. Online broadcasts are not about big revenues, he continued. "Periodically, Yakut films hit revenue records in the regional cinemas, and, on the other hand, no digital platform will buy a film for the money that it can potentially collect in cinemas. The reason is that all films that get online are "pirated", and many producers do not even want to post their film on the Internet platforms so that it is not distributed on pirate resources," he explained.

Noteworthy, 30% of the country's population is cut off cinemas, although they could also contribute to the film industry. "That is also true for Yakutia: 70% of the population have access, 30% do not. Any new screening location is an input into the creative economy, to where cinema belongs," he said.

It was on May, 2022, on his birthday, that Pyotr thought about creating a domestic film screening technology. Almost a year later, in May, 2023, he was already presenting the project to President Vladimir Putin, who eventually instructed the government to create and launch a program to open cinemas in small towns.

The year between the idea and the presentation to the president was full of events: his company became a business resident of the Yakutsk Technopark, the first pilot cinemas were opened, and the final project was presented to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The result was - the authorities agreed to equip cinemas at almost 20,000 leisure centers in small towns and villages. Moreover, the key decision was to use Extra Sinema's technology.

Cinema for all

Now, almost in another year after the idea appeared, Extra Cinema has successfully completed the pilot stage to open cinemas with projectors, using their own technology. Everything is ready for the replication and mass opening of cinemas, the director said: "We have now 27 halls operating in settlements where 36,000 people live. We plan to increase the number of halls to 150 this year, and this will be a completely different coverage."

The developed film projectors are five times cheaper than foreign analogues and cost about 600,000 rubles ($6,500). They show films in high quality, and by using the Internet, the video can be transmitted and downloaded in any locality regardless of long distances. Filmmakers can be sure - their products are protected from "pirates" and encrypted.

"We keep contacts with the demonstrators. For example, we have revised the sound system - the new projectors will have slightly improved versions of sound transmission. We are constantly working on the software. Together with Sber (Russia's largest retail bank), we have started developing a processing center where all film screening participants, that is, copyright holders, demonstrators and ticket systems aggregators, will receive online their due funds from ticket sales. Previously, that was done manually: the accounting department tracks every sold ticket and distributes the income," the company's leader said, adding that very soon tickets would be sold only online.

Simultaneously, the company is expanding the product line. In 2023, it presented a new projector - 232 Max. While the first projector was designed for medium-sized halls with screens up to 10 m wide, the new model fits large venues with a screen width of up to 14 m.

Presently, Extra Cinema's projectors show mainly Yakut films - the region ranks third in the country in terms of film production after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Yakutia releases annually up to 10 films, and revenues in 2023 hit a record of 100 million rubles ($1 million). Involved parties have been considering options to demonstrate Russian films made outside Yakutia.

The first in the Arctic

This year, the cinema network has reached small settlements in Yakutia's Arctic districts. In the village of Chumpu-Kytyl, the first screening was scheduled for April 5, and another cinema hall will open shortly in the village of Betenkes. More than 600 people live in the first village, and about 200 in the second. The settlements did not wait for the state program to come and have joined the project on their own.

"The locals are so eager to watch films at their leisure centers that they have found funds in municipal budgets to purchase the necessary equipment," Pyotr said. "We have sent out the equipment, and it can be installed independently, thus commissioning is easy."

The village of Chumpu-Kytyl has opened a cinema hall at the Leisure House. Its Director Anastasia Nikulina said they did have a film rental, but without the appropriate equipment: they used to send a flash drive to Yakutsk, waited to receive it back - with a Yakut film copied onto it. "The locals have got used to watching movies here. After all, the time difference with Yakutsk is two hours, and thus we can see premiers earlier," she laughed.

The idea to open a cinema hall in the village, where the locals could legally watch films, has been supported by district administration, which has allocated funds from the local budget to buy necessary equipment.

A similar situation was in the village of Betenkes. There, likewise, the local administration supported the purchase, adding funds to the money from the leisure center. The local residents are looking forward anxiously to the cinema opening, said Margarita Toskina, director of the local leisure center. So far, in order to see a film, people from Betenkes have to go to the village of Batagai - it's an hour's drive. When the cinema opens in Betenkes, people from the neighboring settlement, Alysardakh, where 95 people live, will be able to come there.

Some 20 regions across Russia, having seen how the company operates in Yakutia, have contacted Extra Cinema. However, special interest still comes from remote and hard-to-reach Arctic villages.