Russian comedy The Very Best Film (Samiy Luchshiy Film) smashed box office records in its home territory with a whopping $16.5m opening weekend - the biggest ever opening for a film in the country.

The film, distributed through Caroprokat, played across 702 screens in Russia for a massive $23,482 screen average over the four-day period of January 24-27.

It beat out 2007 summer Hollywood hit Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End, which previously held the highest opening weekend in the territory at $13.9m when it opened on May 24.

The parody also generated $7m more than Timur Bekmambetov's Ironiya Sudby Prodolzhenie, which opened last month on December 21 with a $9.4m take, and previously held the biggest opening weekend for a Russian film in the country.

It also took nearly $15m more than the next highest grossing film of the weekend, Cloverfield, which opened to $1.8m on 394 screens, while the latest Rambo installment opened to number three with a $1.5m take from 417 screens.

The Very Best Film is directed by Kirill Kuzin and stars Pavel Volya, Igor Kharlamov and Mikhail Galustyan. It follows Vadim who suffers a mishap at his own wedding and ends up in Purgatory where he has to answer for all of his sins that he committed throughout his over-indulgent life.

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