Norway’s first disaster film The Wave is having its anticipated tsunami effect on Norwegian cinemas and Ingrid-Bergman’s life is fascinating Swedes. Other local titles that hit their target are the football movie Summer of 92 in Denmark and The Midwife in Finland.

After a very strong opening in Norway (3rd best ever for a Norwegian film), The Wave stayed at number 2 last weekend, dropping only 14% to reach nearly 400,000 total admissions. “We’re of course extremely happy and extremely thrilled with the success of The Wave,” said Rasmus Krogh, Head of Nordic Acquisitions for Nordisk Film. “The fact that the audience has embraced the film the way they’ve done really proves that it is possible for Nordic films to succeed in a genre that is usually reserved for Hollywood. As long as the story has a local focus and the characters have that Scandinavian feel to them.”

Another local title performed to expectations, the kids franchise Casper & Emma on Safari that opened at number 2, selling 89,574 tickets from 171 screens for SF Norge.
 
In Denmark the feel-good football comedy Summer of ‘92 has hit a core beyond its core football fans base and received rave reviews in the Danish press (4 stars in Politiken, Berlingske Tidende, Ekstra Bladet, 5 stars in Jullands-Posten) The Kasper Barfoed film kept a second place in its second week, with 134,570 total admissions for FC/SF. 

In Finland Antti J. Jokinen’s The Midwife had the strongest screen average of the weekend and opened at number 2 under Disney’s Inside Out, with nearly 40,000 admissions for Nordisk Film. In its third weekend Mika Kaurismäki’s Homecoming took the third place for SF Film. Total admissions are 56,150. 

In Iceland the local Oscar contender Rams is still playing at number 14 after 15 weeks on screens and total admissions have passed 20,000. Another Sena release, Virgin Mountain has sold 12,544. 

In Sweden Kay Pollak’s Heaven and Earth - sequel to his 2004 hit As it Is in Heaven got mixed reviews from the national press and had a softer than expected opening last weekend with 53,288 tickets sold from 260 screens, for a second place at the Top Ten for SF. 
Meanwhile in its second weekend on screens, NonStop Entertainment’s Ingrid Bergman In Her Own Words continues to perform extremely well. After its opening weekend that was the strongest for a documentary throughout the 2000s, and strongest for a Swedish film this year, the tribute to Ingrid Bergman sold an extra 16,034 tickets from 107 screens to end up at 61.976. The Stig Björkman film sold another 10,070 tickets in Denmark (Miracle Distribution), and 5,412 tickets in Norway (Another World Entertainment).

Sources: FAFID, SMAIS, Filmikamari, Norkse Filmbyråers Forening, Filmägarnas Kontrollbyrå.