In Denmark at the end of the first quarter, domestic films have sold 1,850,000 tickets according to the Danish Film Institute. This compares to 3,350,000 tickets throughout 2014. With their 43% market-share Danish films beat US fare that had a 38% share during the same period.
The Top 5 biggest Danish films in 2015 are Anders Thomas Jensen’s comedy Men & Chicken (357,097 admissions, Disney) followed by Niels Nørløv’s family film My Canadian Adventure (310,838, All Right Film), Hella Joof’s comedy All Inclusive (305,913 in 2015 - 411,556 in total for SF) and Erik Clausen’s drama People Get Eaten (225,706, Nordisk Film).
Last weekend a total of four Danish titles were in the Top 10: Roni Ezra’s WW2 drama 9 April scripted by Tobias Lindholm was number 2 in its fifth week on screens (201,807 admissions for Nordisk Film). The fantasy adventure The Shamer’s Daughter was stable in third place (155,356 admissions, Nordisk Film), while Christina Rosendahl’s political thriller The Idealist opened at number 5 (16,399 admissions, FC/SF). Clausen’s humorous and tender film People Get Eaten was number 8 in its seventh week.
In Finland the current 42% market-share for local films is due largely to the comedy Reunion (Luokkakokous) that has sold a record 442,181 tickets in less than two months for Nordisk Film. Harri Ahokas, Head of Domestic Distribution at the Finnish Film Foundations estimates that the final count for the Finnish remake of the Danish hit Klassefesten could reach 500,000. “We thought Reunion had good chances in cinemas as a comedy with a strong local casting, but its success went far over most optimistic estimates”, he admits. The second biggest crowd puller of 2015 is Ricky Rapper and the Scrooge of Seville, fifth instalment in the popular Ricky Rapper franchise (295,700 admissions, Disney).
Last weekend 5 of the 10 biggest hits in Finnish cinemas were homemade: After Reunion, Jalmari Helander’s Big Game was number four in its fourth week (93,387 admissions, Nordisk Film), followed by the family film We Are the Pirates of the Road (34,867, Nordisk Film). Petri Kotwica’s drama Henkesi edestä (working title in English Cross Your Heart) opened at number 7 (3,442 admissions, Nordisk Film) while Klaus Härö’s drama The Fencer, remained stable at number 10 (29,512, Nordisk Film).
Ahokas says the market share for Finnish films could end up at a record 30% by the end of the year thanks to strong upcoming films such as Mika Kaurismäki’s Homecoming, Antti Jokinen’s Wildeye, Teppo Airaksinen’s Lapland Odyssey 2 and Saara Cantell’s Jill & Joy’s Winter.
(Sources: Filmikamari, FAFID, Finnish Film Foundation)