Small U.S. Studios Find Audience at Moscow Fair : Movies: Major studios are boycotting to protest Soviet piracy, benefiting purveyors of ‘Robo CHIC.’

MOSCOW —  A garish, life-size cardboard cutout of a blond-haired woman wearing a black miniskirt and silver elbow-length gloves greets the curious at an American booth at the Moscow film industry fair.

“Robo CHIC: part cop . . . part machine . . .,” reads the caption, “All woman!”

Although the largest U.S. studios are staying away from this year’s film industry fair, the smaller American studios, which aren’t participating in the boycott to protest Soviet video piracy, are stealing the show here--and the sales.

The fair, which is running concurrently with the 17th Moscow International Film Festival, has attracted two U.S. participants: AIP Studios, which produces action films such as “Robo CHIC,” and Ifex International Ltd., which represents several independent U.S. studios and distributors, including the Movie Group, August Entertainment, Comment/Odyssey, Inter-Ocean Film Sales, Fox/Lorber and Viacom.

And despite obstacles such as the non-convertible ruble and rampant video piracy, these firms are finding ways to make money and sales on the notorious Soviet film distribution market.

AIP in particular has been doing brisk business. The firm currently has four titles playing in Soviet movies theaters

“Revenger,” “Future Force,” “Space Mutiny” and “Phoenix: The Warrior”--and has recently sold another five films to independent Soviet distribution companies.

The company sells the films for both hard currency and rubles. In the two years that AIP has been operating in the Soviet market, it has grossed $200,000 and 40 million rubles ($22 million at the distorted commercial exchange rate), said Igor P. Medvedev, the firm’s Moscow representative. The firm has also begun selling films to Poland through its Soviet operation.

AIP is also negotiating an innovative deal with Soviet television under which the firm would give the national TV channel the right to screen AIP films on a weekly basis free of charge. In return, AIP would be given 48 minutes’ worth of broadcasting time on national television every month, which the company hopes to sell to U.S. companies for advertising.

“Maybe the major studios don’t think this is an important market,” said David Winters, president and chairman of AIP, “but I know it’s an important market.”

Wendy Reeds, Ifex’s international vice president, is negotiating with several independent Soviet distributors and the state Sovexportfilm organization to sell three films: “Highlander II,” “Naked Tango” and “May Wine.” She said she is hoping to sell the titles for hard currency, though she is considering accepting rubles in some cases.

The fact that giant rivals such as Warner Bros. and Columbia aren’t around doesn’t bother them one bit.

“I’m very happy that the majors aren’t here,” said Winters, “because there’s less competition. Can you imagine? It’s like being the only film company in America. And it’s a bigger market than America.”

Not having the major studios represented is “ definitely beneficial to independents,” said Reeds. “But I think (the majors) are right to make a stand, because they’re being hurt the most from the piracy.”

Reeds said independents are usually less affected by piracy, because their films are less well-known and thus less attractive to would-be bootleggers.

But there are exceptions. One of the titles Reeds hoped to sell at the fair, “Earth Girls Are Easy,” is a case in point: When she arrived in Moscow, she found out that pirated copies of the film were already circulating throughout the country.

“I realized I didn’t have a hope of selling it,” she said.

She said some smaller studios are selling their films cheaply to the Soviets, between $10,000 and $20,000, because “if they don’t sell now, they’ll be pirated later.”

“Besides,” she added, “that’s all the Soviets are willing to pay. They don’t have the hard currency.”

Winters was undeterred. He said he plans to acquire a chain of 50 movie theaters throughout the Soviet Union to show AIP films, with the estimated 30 billion rubles ($16.7 billion) in financing to come from the firm’s partner in the deal, the beleaguered Yugoslav government.

He said AIP is also planning a joint production with a private Soviet film studio, Fora Film, to be called “Moscow Connection.” The film, which Winters hopes to direct himself, will be about an ex-Drug Enforcement Agency officer who comes to the Soviet Union to hunt down an American who is selling a new hallucinogenic drug to Soviet consumers.