Major Russian producers buy stakes in Fedor Bondarchuk’s production company Art Pictures

Blockbuster film director Fedor Bondarchuk has brought two major Russian producers into his production company Art Pictures Group. Sergei Arlanov, co-founder of production company Kostafilm, and Vyacheslav Murugov, former general producer of CTC Media and current head of production company Prime Time, have both become 10% stakeholders in Art Pictures. Both men were brought on board to “strengthen the team”, co-founder Dmitry Rudovsky told Kommersant. Art Pictures’ two founders Rudovsky and Bondarchuk have each decreased their stakes in the company from 25% to 20%.

Prime Time was launched in March this year, after it was announced that two major Russian broadcasting organisations — the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company and National Media Group — joined forces to launch the new company.

Despite economic downturn in the country, last month saw a record-breaking cinema attendance figure in Russia, with 15.5 million admissions registered, a figure up by 40% since April 2014.