Admissions First Six Months 2013 - Finland, Iceland, Sweden

Finland: Women on Top 
The first six months of 2013 were marked by a historical event: the first time ever a Finnish female director reached 400,000 admissions. This phenomenal success was achieved by Johanna Vuoksenmaa’s divorce comedy 21 Ways to Ruin a Marriage (Dionysos Film) which has now passed the 400,000 mark, a record reached only four times over the last 25 years by The Winter War (1989), Ambush (1999), Bad Boys (2002) and Matti: Hell is For Heroes (2006).

Besides the best-selling title 21 Ways to Ruin a Marriage, three other Finnish films were in the Top Ten Finland during the first part of 2013. The family film Rolli and the Golden Key (Matila Röhr Productions) came second, the musical comedy The Year of ’85-Rock your Memories (Arista) was number four, above Iron Man 3 and Django Unchained, and the comedy Gloriously Wasted (Dictator Films) number seven.

Another record was broken during that period by Kim Saarniluoto and Ville Suhonen’s Tale of a Forest (Matila Röhr Productions) that made history by selling an all-time record cinema tickets for a Finnish documentary (nearly 80,000 admissions by the end of August).

Total admissions for the first six months remained stable at 3,980,000 while Finnish films had a comfortable 30% market share with 1.2 million admissions.

 Top Ten Finland January-June 2013, source Filmikamari

 
Iceland: Attendance Downslide Continues
While Icelandic films are travelling to world festivals and picking up awards (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson won Best Actor in Karlovy Vary for XL, Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead and Robert I. Douglas’ This is Sanlitun are screening in Toronto and Benedikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses and Men will go to San Sebastian), the situation at home is much gloomier.

The downturn in cinema attendance since 2009 continues, and during the first six months of this year 630,815 people watched a film on the silver screen against 656,856 during the same period in 2012. Four local films (XL, Ferox, Rock Bottom, Spooks & Spirits) opened during that time, attracting only 22,091 cinemagoers. “There has been a 4% drop in admissions every year over the last 3-4 years and this first half of the year has been equally tough for us,” acknowledged Konstantin Mikaelsson, Manager of the Film Division at Sena (one of Iceland’s leading distributors) who blames illegal downloading for this situation. Even the quintessentially Icelandic film Of Horses and Men (released August 28) is slow to pick up, according to Mikaelsson who is now waiting for Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead (October 11 release) to raise the market share for Icelandic films.

 Top Ten Iceland January-June 2013, source SMAIS

Sweden: Drastic Drop in Admissions 
Cinema attendance in Sweden dropped by 10.7% to 7,877,319 admissions during the first six months of 2013, which is 3.9% less than the average over the last ten years according to figures from the Swedish Film Institute. But the downslide was even worse for local films that lost nearly 27% admissions compared to the same period in 2012. With 1,324,623 tickets sold, the market share for Swedish films was at 18.4% which is 4% less than during the same period in 2012 and the lowest share registered in the last decade. 

The most successful title during the first six months was Hannes Holm’s comedy Tosh in Greece-All Inclusive (released by Nordisk Film on December 25, 2012), the only Swedish title that made it in the Swedish Top Ten with 321,257 total admissions. The second most popular Swedish film, Teresa Fabik’s Love & Lemons (Nordisk) came in at number 18 (134,806 admissions) followed by Lisa James Larsson’s comedy drama Ego (134,715 admissions, Nordisk), Ulf Malmros’s comedy Metal Brothers (124,931 admissions, Walt Disney) and Mats Årehn’s Best Before (124,727 admissions, SF).
The most outstanding performance during that period was achieved by the Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man, the sixth most popular Swedish film with 81,885 tickets sold. The Non Stop Entertainment release is now nearing 150,000 admissions and celebrating one full year on Swedish screens.
Swedish films’ market share should climb back to more positive levels the second half of the year thanks to a much stronger line up of films reaching cinema audiences. Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein’s Shed No Tears is nearing 200,000 admissions, Lena Koppel’s It’s All About Friends, Easy Money 3-Life Deluxe and Hocus Pocus Alfie Atkins are currently on Sweden’s Top Ten and other potential audience-pullers are Waltz for Monica, Echoes from the Dead, We are the Best, Emil & Ida in Lönneberga, Hannes Holm’s follow up his 2012 hit Sune på bilsemester, and The Centenarian who Climbed out a Window and Disappeared.

Top Ten Sweden January-June 2013, source Swedish Film Institute