So far the biggest local hits of the year are Hella Joof’s comedy The Land of Short Sentences and Bille August’s period drama The Kiss.

As of September 11, overall admissions in Denmark are just over 7 million, up 3% from the same period in 2022, partly thanks to the ‘Barbenheimer’ effect as combined ticket sales for Barbie and Oppenheimer have passed 1 million since their July 20 release.

Although cinema-going shows positive signs of recovery, admissions are still around 13% down pre-Covid level, according to the Danish Film Institute (DFI).

For the moment, the market share for Danish films in 2023 stands at 22% from 1,585,000 ticket sales, which is 15% below the 2022 level.

Six local films released in 2023 have attracted more than 100,000 cinemagoers: Hella Joof’s The Land of Short Sentences (350,197 admissions), Bille August’s The Kiss (220,400), Fenar Ahmad’s Darkland-The Return (196,979), Martin Zandvliet’s Tove’s Room (151,914), Anders Walter’s Before it Ends (149,323) and Malou Reymann’s Untruly (126,412).

The top 10 for the first six months of 2023 also showed that Danes are hungry for quality Nordic family fare, as the Norwegian animated When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town, was the 5th biggest hit until the end of June, ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy-part 3.

Commenting on cinema-going trends, Claus Ladegaard CEO at the Danish Film Institute said: “The current local market share is at this point a bit lower than we had expected. A wet and chilly July proved to be very fertile ground for Barbie and Oppenheimer, which has accounted for 15% of all redeemed tickets YTD. The success of Hollywood movies is important for cinemas, however local movies will take up the fight and we expect the Danish market share to rise during the fall. Especially Nikolaj Arcel's The Promised Land which is currently the centre of a lot of international attention, and Ole Bornedal’s Nightwatch - Demons Are Forever give cause for optimism,” he said.