Last weekend’s top ten in the Nordics reflected the mood and trend on the theatrical market, with popcorn US blockbusters back at the top, after two years of postponed openings or straight to VOD releases due to Covid-19.

Tom Cruise’s blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick did the same magic in the Nordics as everywhere in the world, and is already the biggest grossing movie of 2022 in many territories including Denmark and Finland with 420,570 and 182,956 admissions respectively after four weeks on screens-and still climbing.

Heads of exhibitors’ association in the Nordics, analysts and distributors are finally sharing optimistic views about the silver screen’s path to recovery.

In Denmark, Martin Kofoed Hansen, analyst consultant at the Danish Film Institute says "little by little, if not mentally, we are beginning to put the pandemic behind us, and a kind of normality in relation to cinema launches is emerging. This doesn’t mean that the audience’s cinema behaviour is completely back as it was before the pandemic, but that the American blockbusters are once again starting to find their way to the cinema screens and this can be seen on the weekend’s top list.”

Indeed, according to Hansen, both Top Gun Maverick and the new opener Jurassic World: Dominion accounted for a whopping 80% of ticket sales over the weekend, a clear indicator of the polarisation of the market.

That said two Danish films managed to find a spot in the top 10. Anders Refn’s Out of the Darkness - released by Scanbox ranked number 8 after 8 weeks on screens, and added 1,032 tickets to its tally now at 165,986, making it the 4^th biggest Danish film of the year.

The comedy franchise The Crumbs - it’s hard to be 11 years-old by Michael Asmussen added 470 admissions to its final count of 109,247 after 13 weeks on screens via Nordisk Film.

In Finland, Tero Koistinen Head of the Finnish Chamber of Films, has a similar positive outlook.

“We are back to almost normal,” he told nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “March and April were below the averages of a few percent. May was at a normal level at the box office and it seems that June will be better than average.”

For Koistinen, the opening of two new cinemas contributed to boosting the national figures: the Bio Rex chain opened the six-screener Bio Rex Seinäjoki in December and Finnkino opened another six-screener Finnkino Luxe Mylly early May.

Total admissions at end of May passed 2 million, with domestic films securing 21% of the market. “We do not have new local movies right now, and the next domestic premieres will be in August,” he stressed, warning of a possible cannibalisation of local releases in the fall. “Most of the movie theatres in Finland are single-screen cinemas-especially in those regions where the market share of domestic movies is the biggest, so the fight over the screens might be brutal,” he stated.

Last weekend, the first Nordic film at the top 10 Finland was the Swedish animated feature Bamse and the Volcano Island by Christian Ryltenius. In its fourth weekend on screens, the Nordisk Film release secured a 6^th place at the top charts, and had the third best admission per screen average after Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World: Dominion. So far the film has sold 17,621 tickets.

The Norwegian/Finnish/Croatian documentary The New Greatness Case by Anna Shishova opened in 13 screens via PEK, attracting 300 cinemagoers.

In Norway Guttorm Petterson, Head of Film & Kino voiced a similar optimism, as his cinema association issued a market update, stating that admissions in May were up 4% on the average for the month, with more than 700,000 tickets sold. “It is very gratifying to see that the audience is now finally coming back in full, Petterson said. “The summer months are often a challenge, but here is also the opportunity to make up for some of the losses, and with a strong autumn, not least for Norwegian films, this looks really promising,” he claimed.

Nordisk Film country manager in Norway Morten Christoffersen had a more nuanced comment: “The theatrical market is picking up, but has not yet normalised, we still see that it is the big titles that sell ok and the small titles are close to nothing,” he stated.

While last weekend the three UIP releases Jurassic World: Dominion, Top Gun: Maverick and The Bad Guys dominated the charts, the Danish animated film Checkered Ninja 2 under Nordisk Film care, secured a 4^th place just above Walt Disney’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The film dropped only 14% from the previous weekend, adding 3,852 admissions from 103 screens to reach 77,732.

“We are really pleased with the release of Checkered Ninja 2 in Norway,” Christoffersen told nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “We managed to re-engage the fans from the first movie, using a whole new cast of high-profile comedians as voices. We expect the ticket sales to land somewhere around 90,000, which is far beyond our estimates. Needless to say, the results from No. 1 [147,300] were a stretch target, and we were not expecting to reach similar sales. In short, we had a successful campaign, a successful release, and great results.”

In Sweden, UIP’s top sellers Jurassic World: Dominion, Top Gun: Maverick and The Bad Guys were also the top film trio last weekend and the only non-studio movies in the Top 10 were the Japanese anime Jujutsu Kaisen: The Movie from NonStop Entertainment, Noble Entertainment’s US indie Everything Everywhere All at Once and New Zealand drama Grandmother.

The Swedish film I am Zlatan by Jens Sjögren released by Nordisk Film continues to play strongly and ranked 11 after 13 weeks on screens. More than 232,000 Swedes have now watched the Zlatan Ibrahimovic biopic.

I am Zlatan was also number 11 in Iceland in its second weekend on screens via Sena. So far 430 Icelanders have watched the coming-of-age drama.

The compelling Icelandic film Beautiful Beings by Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson secured a 5^th position at home after Jurassic World: Dominion, Top Gun: Maverick, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the Canadian/French animated Fireheart. Released by Sena, Guðmundsson’s sophomore feature which won the Europa Cinemas Label at the last Berlinale, has sold 8,695 tickets so far.

The Finnish release of Bamse and the Volcano Island, Norwegian release of Checkered Ninja 2, and Icelandic release of I am Zlatan and were all backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Sources: FAFID, Danish Film Institute, Nordisk Film Distribution, FRÍSK, Finnish Film Foundation, Filmikamari, Norske Filmbyråers Forening, Film & Kino, Filmägarnas Kontrollbyrå.