Admissions first 8 months in Norway up 16% - Narvik dominates local Top 10

According to the Norwegian cinema association Film & Kino, the cinema-going upward trend in July thanks to Barbie and Oppenheimer which saw ticket sales rise 48.5% year on year, was easily sustained in August, and the momentum is likely to continue until the end of the year.

In August, admissions were up 91% for all films and 17% for Norwegian films compared to the same period in 2022. And after eight months, total tickets sold in 2023 have crossed 6 million, up 16% year on year, with Norwegian films securing 20% of the market from 1,222,891 ticket sales, up a record 186% year on year.

By late August, Barbie was the biggest film of the year with 607,575 admissions for Warner Bros, ahead of UIP’s Oppenheimer (461,575) and Super Mario Bros (417,668). But Erik Skjoldbjærg’s Narvik ranked 4th with 334,000 admissions since its December 25, 2022 release via Nordisk Film.

The second best-selling Norwegian film was When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town with 203,823 admissions. Another Qvisten Animation production on Nordisk Film’s line-up- A Mystery on the Cattle Hill Express, came 3^rd at the Norwegian Top 10, just ahead of Ole Giæver’s Sámi protest drama Let the River Flow with 88,481 admissions

Meanwhile Norway’s prominent documentary filmmaker Margreth Olin demonstrated again her immense pulling power with local audiences, as her most personal film Songs of Earth sold nearly 14,000 tickets, the best opening figures for a nature documentary since March of the Penguins in 2006. (See our story here: Smashing screen debut for Songs of Earth in Norway).

“We now see a good range of films that draw people to Norwegian cinemas all over the country,” said Espen Lundberg Pedersen, head of Film & Kino, for whom the high quality of the films, improved silver screen experience thanks to the upgrading of cinemas, plus “variable weather with a lot of rainfall” have probably also played a positive role in cinema-going in Norway.

For Lundberg Pedersen, the theatrical market “is now in the process of making a full comeback” post-Covid, and total admissions for 2023 should reach 9,5 to 10 million.

Upcoming potential blockbusters in Norway include Dune 2, Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, as well as the local titles Christmas in Cobble Street, Qvisten animation’s The Brothers Gruff go to Splash World and the star-packed Convoy directed by Henrik M. Dahlsbakken.

To see Norway January to August 2023 Admissions Charts: CLICK HERE.