Distributors to profit on Ukrainian

КиївПост: Розповсюджувачі виграють від Української мови

In anticipation of more Ukrainian-language dubbing contracts, film distributors are already planning to invest in the expansion of their sound facilities.

In anticipation of more Ukrainian-language dubbing contracts, film distributors are already planning to invest in the expansion of their sound facilities.

Seeing the market potential, Ukrainian and foreign companies are hurrying to capitalize on the expected demand for Ukrainian dubbing.

Polish native Bohdan Batruch, CEO and owner of B&H, an official distributor of United International Pictures, Paramount, Dreamworks, Walt Disney and other Hollywood majors, said the increased demand for Ukrainian-language dubbed movies in cinemas will bring down the cost of dubbing.

Movies in Ukrainian already gross more than the same titles with the Russian dubbing.

“It is a myth that Ukrainians wouldn’t want to watch a movie in Ukrainian,” Batruch said, as the country’s secondary and higher education systems are predominantly in Ukrainian. Soviet leaders pushed hard to establish Russian as the predominate language in Ukraine and other Soviet republics. It was the language used in education and other important venues. Usage of Ukrainian was rare in the country’s capital Kyiv during Soviet days, for example. Many in the capital didn’t even understand Ukrainian.

But now, “there is a new generation of moviegoers who would hardly notice any difference,” Batruch added.

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