Unlike 2006 which had several US tentpoles driving figures up such as Ice Age 2, The Da Vinci Code, The Chronicles of Narnia and Chicken Little, this year, Nordic exhibitors had to wait for the release of Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 in May to see cinemagoers flock to the cinemas again. The hot Easter weather and the weaker performance of local films in Norway and Finland were also blamed for the general downturn in cinema attendance.
The sharpest drops in Norwegian admissions were in April (-17.9%) and January (-17.1%), but May was down again by 14.8% with 3.9 million admissions against 4.6 million for the same period in 2006. "This Winter/Spring hasn't had any strong blockbuster, unlike last year, so figures are almost like in 2005", commented Lene Løken, head of Film & Kino. "However, I think this downturn is just temporary as we are going to have very good films over the summer. Later on, in the autumn, we are going to have strong local films as well so I hope that the end of the year will be more like in 2006".
Norway's top grossing film so far (June 23) is Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (466,715 admissions) but three local titles are also in the Top 10: The Junior Olsen Gang-The Secret of the Silvermine (283,028), Elias & the Royal Yacht (224,254), and the romantic film Mars & Venus (129,719) .
In Finland, Tero Koistinen from Filmikamari (Finnish Chamber of Films) estimates the total Finnish admissions until mid June to be at around 2.7 million, 20% down on 2006, with Finnish films taking 15.5% of the market share (including co-productions). "Last year, we had an unusually good start of the year with FC Venus and Matti-Hell is for Heroes. This year, V2 Dead Angel has passed 193,000 admissions, but it is the only local title that has sold over 100,000 tickets".
In Denmark and Sweden, spirits are higher for local industry people as domestic films have kept figures up despite the general downhill cinemagoing trend.
According to figures published by the Danish Film Institute, local films fared strongly during the first five months of 2007, with approximately 1.84 million tickets sold, 500,000 more than in 2006. This represented a 10% increase in their market share from 23% last year to 33% in 2007.
Five Danish films were in the Top 10 all films: Anja & Viktor-Flaming Love (346,845 admissions), Temporary Release (309,193), Island of Lost Souls (194,419), The Art of Crying (193,539) and The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar II (186,488). With 65,915 tickets sold in only two weeks, The Substitute should also add to the list of top 2007 local performers.
Anders Geertsen, head of the DFI's Distribution Department said: "We've had very good results from Danish feature films so far and are very happy with the first part of the year. Denmark has had an unusually warm weather during Easter, which means that people have not gone to the cinemas so much, but still figures are good and we hope they will be at least like last year. It looks very promising".
In Sweden, Thomas Bryntesson, responsible for Statistics at the Swedish Film Institute is also ecstatic over the performance of local films: "Although total admissions were down by 1% during the first quarter 2007, Swedish films' market share reached a record 35.4%, against 24.2% the previous year. This is excellent".
The biggest Swedish hits were the comedy Göta Kanal 2 (total admissions since December 2006 release 871,298) which also took the number one position for all titles released, followed by Johan Brisinger's Suddenly (256,899), Helena Bergström's Mind the Gap (240,806) and Manne Lindwall's Rose The Tour (189,734).
Total April figures in Sweden were down by 31% compared to 2006, but again, "last year was an exception and had the best results in 15 years" according to Bryntesson, with major hits such as Chicken Little or Colin Nutley's Heartbreak Hotel.
In Iceland, based on figures provided of Smais (Association of Film Rights Holders), total admissions for the first quarter of 2007 were at 361,340. "The first quarter has been significantly up (over 20%), and although we don't have the total figures for the 2nd quarter yet, it looks like admissions will continue to climb. Local films this year have been very successful", commented Snaebjorn Steingrimsson, managing director for Smais.
Björn Br Björnsson's thriller Cold Trail was largely credited for the excellent performance of local titles, taking the third place at the Top 10 for the first three months of 2007 with 14,404 tickets sold, behind the US blockbusters 300 (22,197) and the biggest grosser of the year so far Night at the Museum (27,173). Other local films released during that period include Parents (5,743 admissions), Jar City (which added another 2,226 tickets sold to its 81,580 tickets in 2006) and the animation film Anna and the Moods (3,112).