After the first weekend of release (March 8-11), The Stolen Princess Animagrad, FILM.UA Group) animated film was watched by 285,784 viewers, and its box office amounted to $823,546. 168 cinemas ran the strip, demonstrating it on over 300 screens.
Therefore, the film did not only rank first in the national box office for this period, having stood up well against A Wrinkle in Time family film produced by Walt Disney Pictures, but also set a new record of starting box office for feature films made in Ukraine: it overtook its competitors by more than three times.
It is worth noting that for the first time Ukrainian animated film became one of the start weekend leaders of this year, ranking second by the number of tickets sold and making it to top three films by start box offices, along with such global hits as Black Panther and Fifty Shades Freed ($1 078 997 and $937 094 respectively).
The animation film results by the number of tickets sold are only smaller than the starting amounts for Black Panther (300,219 viewers in the first weekend). By the number of tickets sold, The Stolen Princess won over the final movie of a hyper-successful franchise, Fifty Shades Freed (280,695 tickets). The comparison with December release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a cult film, is also interesting: the movie ceded to Ukrainian animation by the number of viewers during the first weekend (226,569). Also, there is an interesting comparison with the Coco Oscar-winning animated feature numbers. Its first-weekend box office amounted to $379 052 UAH and 134 726 submissions in Ukrainian theaters. These numbers are half of The Stolen Princess results on the first weekend release. 
The film distributors and authors count on a long release story for the project: the audience loved The Stolen Princes. Starting from the first days, social networks have been filled with admiring and very appreciative cartoon reviews from Ukrainians of different ages.
“We went to see the cartoon and liked it! Especially the local jokes, the cute hamster and the product being Ukrainian. Support Ukrainian, go to the cinema! If you don’t have kids, you’ll feel young again; if you do, they’ll be overjoyed!” posted Anna Gres, a Ukrainian blogger, on her Facebook page.
The adults did appreciate the film, but the essential thing is that the children loved it. “Thanks a lot for the cartoon,” Sasha Ivanov posted on Facebook. “We went to see it twice yesterday and twice today. I love it! I want more!”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman called for supporting Ukrainian cinematography: “The Stolen Princess, a Ukrainian animated film partially financed by the state, has been released. The screening rights have been pre-sold to more than 30 territories. Let us support high-quality Ukrainian cinema!” In 2016, The Stolen Princess became a winner at the 9th competitive selection of Ukrainian State Film Agency; the sum of state financing amounted to about 20 percent of the cartoon’s total budget of 95 million UAH.
Ukrainian celebrities have also highly appreciated the work of Animagrad: “Yesterday there was a premiere of Ukrainian feature film! I am happy to be a part of this magnificent event. The Stolen Princess is the highest quality animation film! Bravo to Animagrad studio, FILM.UA Group and the project team,” said Nadya Dorofeyeva, vocalist of a popular Vremya i steklo band, sharing her impressions after the screening.
Starting from March 16, the film will go into theatrical release in Romania; on March 23, in Turkey; on April 5 and 6, in Croatia and Bulgaria respectively; on April 27 the release starts in Lithuania; and on May 4, in Latvia. In summer, premiere screenings of The Stolen Princess are planned in Israel, China, Korea, Poland, and Estonia. The cartoon has been pre-sold to more than 50 territories all over the world, including countries of Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
You can follow the news of the project on its official Facebook page, Instagram account, and official website.
About the film. This wonderful story happened in the age of valiant knights, beautiful princesses, and battling sorcerers. Ruslan, a wandering artist dreaming to become a knight, met beautiful Mila and fell in love with her; he didn’t even suspect that she is the King’s daughter. However, the lovers’ happiness wasn’t meant to last too long. Chоrnomor, the evil sorcerer, appeared in a magic vortex and stole Mila right before Ruslan’s eyes to transform her power of love into his own magic power. Without further ado, Ruslan sets out on a chase after the stolen princess to overcome all obstacles and to prove that real love is stronger than magic.
Producer: Egor Olesov. Director: Oleg Malamuzh. Scriptwriter: Yaroslav Voytseshek. Art-director: Christian Koskinen.
