“Norwegian films had a record-breaking year with a market share of 25.2%. It has never been higher in modern times, noted Guttorm Petterson, head of the cinema association Film & Kino.

After Mamma Mia-Here We Go Again, top selling film of the year with 708,436 admissions, three local films dominated the top film chart, all Nordisk Film releases.

The Wave’s follow up The Quake directed by John Andreas Andersen sold 589,620 tickets, followed by Harald Zwart’s The 12th Man which added 426,000 in 2018 to its 2017 count to reach 640,519 total admissions. Louis & Luca-Mission to the Moon, third and final instalment in the beloved Flåklypa universe created by animator Rasmus A. Sivertsen, ranked number four with 422,741 admissions.

Other popular local entries were the comedy Opportunity Knocks by Arild Frölich, 11th best-selling film with 263,819 admissions, and Erik Poppe’s U-July 22, number 15 with 250,044 admissions. US films had one of the lowest market shares in at least five years at 61.3%, while European films improved their score from 9.3% in 2017 to 10.3% last year. General attendance increased by 3% to 12.1 million, which is higher than the 11.9 million average of the last decade. In the last five years, only 2016 posted better results thanks to the local blockbuster The King’s Choice (713,276 admissions). Box office revenues improved by 9.1% to NOK1.273,6 million.  

Erik Poppe’s documentary Per Fugelli-I Die (Per Fegelli-siste resept) was the 10th biggest Norwegian film of 2018 with 79,773 admissions. Other top documentaries were the archive-based Hometown Stories from a Century (Trondheimsreisen) by Magnus Skatvold which sold 32,443 tickets, and The Men’s Room (For vi er gutta) by Petter Sommer and Jo Vemund Svendsen, Best Norwegian Documentary at Bergen International Film Festival.

The top 5 Nordic films in terms of admissions were the following:

  • The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear (DK), 124,896 
  • All I Want for Christmas (DK), 46,602 
  • Solsidan-the Movie (SE), 20,288
  • Border (SE), 14,420 
  • The Guilty (DK), 8,641

For 2019, Petterson expects cinema attendance to be “on the same level” as 2018, with “a lot of family movies throughout the year”. 

FOR NORWAY 2018 ANNUAL ADMISSIONS CHARTS CLICK HERE: Norway 2018 Annual Admissions Charts