More than 655,000 Danes have bought a cinema ticket to watch the latest film by Terkel in Trouble’s Anders Matthesen.

The last Danish animation record holder was Peter Madsen’s 1986 film Valhalla which posted 610,840 admissions. Matthesen’s own musical comedy Terkel in Trouble (2004) was the fourth best-selling Danish animated film with 375,822 total admissions. 

Released on Christmas day, Checkered Ninja (Ternet Ninja) immediately caught fire and made history as the best-ever four-day opening for a Danish film with 222,760 tickets sold. 

Nordisk Film Distribution’s marketing director Frederik Honoré said: “It’s great to see a Danish family film reaching out as wide as it does. The film still has good legs so it’s hard to say exactly where it will end. But it’s likely it will sell at least 750,000 tickets." 

Checkered Ninja is based on comedian/director/writer Matthesen’s own eponymous children’s book, featuring the creator’s own songs and score. Thorbjørn Christoffersen (Ronan the Barbarian) served as animation director. The film focuses on Aske (7) who gets a Ninja doll from his Uncle Stewart after a trip to Thailand. The boy soon finds out that the doll is alive and can help him with problems at school. But the checkered ninja is possessed and has its own plan and idea of revenge.

The film was produced by Anders Mastrup and Trine Heidegaard for Scandinavia’s leading animation studio A-Film. It was co-produced by Sudoko ApS, Pop Up Production and DR, with support from the Danish Film Institute. Nordisk Film handles Scandinavian distribution and LeveK world sales. 

Heidegaard who produced the other Danish animation hit The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear, told www.nordicfilmandtvnews.com that a sequel is possibly on the cards. “Checkered Ninja was based on a book, and I know that at this very moment, a second book is being written. We’ll see, but we are ready and would love to do a Checkered Ninja2, she said.”

The film has five nominations at Denmark's annual Robert awards.