Stalingrad Film Breaks Russian Box Office Record

By The Moscow Times

Oct. 28, 2013

Fyodor Bondarchuk's Stalingrad, Russia's entry for the best foreign-language category at next year's Academy Awards, has become the highest-grossing film in the country's history.

Stalingrad brought in $38.49 million in Russia ahead of this weekend, Kinometro.ru said Friday, beating the romantic comedy The Irony of Fate 2, which earned $38.46 million in 2007.

Stalingrad is a love story set in 1942 in the eponymous city on the Volga River, a site of one of the bloodiest battles fought between the Red Army and the Nazis.

The film, Russia's first IMAX 3D production, had a budget of $30 million and was partially funded by the state.

Despite its success at the box office, Stalingrad received generally mediocre reviews in the Russian press and scored a mere 4.6 out of 10 on film website IMDb.

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