Helena Bergström’s Christmas comedy En underbar jävla jul (A Holy Mess) attracted 77,736 visitors in Sweden from 247 screens, making it the biggest opening for a Swedish film in 2015. “It is fantastic that the film has already reached and moved such a wide audience,” said the director/actress who also co-wrote the script with Edward af Sillén and Daniel Réhn.
Another SF release, Jerry Maya’s Detective Agency 3-Stella Nova was number four after five weeks on screens. So far 209.239 Swedes have watched the third film based on Martin Widmark’s books.
In Denmark Emma & Julemanden: Jagten på elverdronningens Hjerte (Emma and Santa Claus - The Quest for the Elf Queen's Heart) that follows up on TV2’s hit Christmas calendars Ludvig & Julemanden (2011) and Tvillingerne & Julemanden (2013) was launched on 76 screens by Scanbox and sold 28,341 tickets for a second place. At the other end of the audience spectrum, Michael Noer’s festival hit Key House Mirror opened at number three for Nordisk Film, selling 25,204 tickets.
The comedy Clown-Forever dropped only by one seat from number six to seven in its eight week. Total admissions have now passed 504,000 for the Nordisk Film release. At number eight, the franchise film Father of Four on a Wild Holiday added 5,607 admissions from 70 screens in its seventh week, boosting final numbers to 245,723 for Nordisk Film. Meanwhile the documentary and CPHDOX opener Man Falling sold 3,146 tickets from 12 screens for DOX:BIO.
In Iceland Baltasar Kormákur’s English language drama Everest is holding on well for Myndform at number six and total admissions after nine weeks have reached 66.661. At number Ten the Danish comedy Clown-Forever is also steadily adding numbers for Sena. Total admissions are 16.400 after six weeks.
Three award-winning Icelandic films released by Sena are still in the Top 20. After five weeks, Sparrows has sold 3.586 tickets, Virgin Mountain 12.985 after 34 weeks and Rams 21,353 after 25 weeks.
In Finland Spectre is still comfortably sitting at number one after three weeks, but two local titles – the comedy Lapland Odyssey 2 and the family film Jill & Joy’s Winter - have also kept their second and third place at the Top Ten, after seven and six weeks on screens. So far the two local films released by Nordisk Film have sold 339,847 and 191,846 tickets respectively.
Antti J Jokinen’s love and war epic The Midwife also has long legs, with 219,873 tickets sold after 11 weeks for Nordisk Film.
As for Joonas Berghäll’s Mother’s Wish, after five weeks on screens the documentary has climbed two seats from number 19 to 17 at the Top 20 and total admissions have reached 9,315, making it the most successful Finnish documentary of 2015.
In Norway Julekongen-Full rustning (Valley of Knights: Mira's Magical Christmas) adapted from the popular NRK Christmas calendar series benefitted from Nordisk Film’s wide release on 164 screens and opened at number two with 59,469 admissions.
In a crowded market for children’s films, two other Nordisk Film releases - Doctor Proctor: Bubble in the Bath and Knutsen & Ludvigsen and the Horrible Rasputin lost more than half their screen space week on week but still added good numbers after five and eight weeks on screens respectively. Number five last weekend, the Arild Fröhlich film has now sold 220,306 tickets and the number eight Rasmus A Sivertsen and Rune Spaans film has passed 202,000.
The Norwegian blockbuster of the year Roar Uthaug’s The Wave also under Nordisk Film’s banner added another 2,904 admissions to reach 825,150.
One of the most extraordinary performances of the weekend was the local documentary Søsken til evig tid: Amerikareisa by Frode Fimland that opened at number six for Tour de Force, selling a total of 7,579 tickets. The film featuring again the elder siblings Magnar and Oddny looks like another hit for the director. His first film Søsken til evig tid (Siblings are Forever) sold more than 40,000 tickets in 2013.
Sources: FAFID, DFI, SMAIS, Filmikamari, Norske Filmbyråers Forening, Filmweb.no, Filmägarnas Kontrollbyrå.