Arn's heavy artillery firing on all guns at the Box Office
SF's Arn-The Knight Templar is ruling in Sweden, adding fine numbers in Norway with a third position at the Top Ten. It is ready to take Denmark by storm today, (January 11, 2008).
In Sweden, the first of two feature films based on Jan Guillou's best-seller novel has already passed the 653,000 admissions in two only weeks, the best performance ever for a Swedish film on home turf. SF seems on the right track to reach the one million admissions hoped for. The film playing on 107 screens beat Bee Movie which opened the same day. The animation film Laban the Little Ghost is still at the Top ten at number eight after eight weeks on the big screens.
In Norway, Arn-the Knight Templar held on to its third place in its second week with over 102,000 tickets sold from 64 prints for SF Norge. Bent Hamer's much anticipated O'Horten released by Scanbox on Boxing Day, took the seventh place at the Top Ten last weekend, with over 18,000 admissions so far. The new Norwegian film opening today is the chiller Rovdyr by Patrik Syversen released by Euforia Film.
In Denmark, young kids and their parents were faithful to the third animated feature about Jungle Jack, Amazon Jack 3 - Jungo Goes Bananas produced by Per Holst. Since December 25, the film playing in 80 screens has been seen by 74,000 Danes. It was number six at last weekend's Top Ten. At number eight, Natasha Arthy's critically acclaimed Fighter is steadily adding figures, now at over 41,000 admissions. This is a successful start for the new distribution collaboration between Sandrew Metronome and Nimbus Film.
Jacob Thuesen's The Early Years just made it in the Top Ten with over 15,000 tickets sold since Christmas day for SF/Filmcompagniet.
Arn-the Knight Templar, opening today in over 40 screens should be another hit for Danish filmmaker Peter Flinth, used to 150,000 plus admissions for his children films.
Finland had a brilliant end of year box office with a 61% market share for local films from five films the weekend of December 28-30, Lauri Nurkse's romantic comedy Playing Solo produced by MRP Matila Röhr was number one with over 25,000 tickets sold for Nordisk Film from 42 screens. At number two was the other MRP Matila Röhr production Quest for a Heart, with over 63,000 admissions from 67 screens. In third position was the amazing Christmas Story with a total of 241,000 admissions from 60 prints in six weeks. Juha Wuolijoki's fairy tale was 2007's biggest local film.
Åke Lindman and Sakari Kirjavainen´s war film Tali-Ihantala 1944 has passed the 120,000 admissions for Walt Disney Studios from 55 screens, and The Border over 52,000 admissions for FS Film.
The new Finnish film with great potential, opening today is Dome Karukoski's The Home of the Butterflies scripted by Marko Leino. The film produced by Solar Films is released on 40 screens by Nordisk Film. Also opening today is the Swedish hit Solstorm released by Sandrew Metronome with three prints.
In Iceland, Ari Kristinsson's family adventure film No Network (Duggholufólkið) was ninth at the Top 10 last weekend, with a total of 5,502 admissions from three screens in five weeks for Sena.