“When colleagues provided me the opportunity to watch the brilliant adaptation of this literary masterpiece by Mikhail Lokshin, I immediately contacted the Russian producers to bring this unique film to audiences outside Russia,” recalls Peter Hoffman, co-founder of Luminosity Pictures. The moment, recounted to Variety, captures the genesis of a long-delayed American release for a film that has already proved its power elsewhere.

The picture opened in Russia in January 2024 and quickly became a phenomenon: it grossed more than 2.3 billion roubles on a 1.2-billion-rouble budget, drawing 4.8 million cinemagoers and becoming the first 18+ rated release to surpass that box-office threshold. At the Nika awards, Russia’s highest film honours, it swept seven prizes, including best picture.

Yet the momentum stalled. International distribution was held up by sanctions and a thicket of legal claims over the rights to Bulgakov’s novel. Heirs and American producers disputed who could authorise an English-language release, with one distributor arguing in court that the text had entered the public domain. Only now, more than two years after its Russian premiere, have those obstacles been cleared, allowing the restored director’s version to reach American screens.

The film has already unspooled in Germany, Austria, Sweden and Italy; producer Igor Tolstunov reported that it had earned €1.5 million abroad by last summer. In the first half of 2025, it became the highest-grossing Russian release internationally. Hoffman hopes American audiences will be “charmed by its romance, imagination and timeless themes” and understand why the story “captivates readers around the world for generations.” After a long sojourn through courts and sanctions, the devil and his retinue are finally ready for their American close-up.