Carpenter Andersen Meets Santa Claus is the latest addition to a handful of local film hits. 

The family film directed by Terje Rangnes opened straight at number one for Nordisk Film, pushing down Doctor Strange from its top chart position.

The first children’s film produced by genre specialists Fantefilm (The Wave) has already passed 90,000 admissions from 164 screens and is likely to have a long life on screens with its attractive cast (Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Trond Espen Seim) and Christmas material based on the beloved literary classic by Alf Prøysen from 1959.

Last weekend another local film Børning 2-On Ice made a big mark on the Norwegian film charts by beating the top selling foreign film Me Before You [US] and taking the second place for the 2016 yearly local Top Ten (413,834 admissions, SF Norge) right after Erik Poppe’s The King’s Choice (668,632, Nordisk Film Distribution). Both films also star the popular and versatile Christiansen.

“Cinema attendance continue to do really well in Norway and it’s a pleasure to see two Norwegian films at the top of the charts,” said Guttorm Petterson, head of Film & Kino. "So far admissions are 10% higher than last year at the same period, and everything seems to indicate that this will be one of the best years in a long time. Norwegian films are important locomotives for film interest and drive other films along.”

The next big film present to Norwegian families is the stop motion animation film In the Forest of Huckybucky, opening on Christmas day.