Eight years after Helander’s previous action-packed Big Game’s launch on US screens, with the blessing of the movie’s title star Samuel L. Jackson, the Finnish director was back with a vengeance with his production partner Petri Jokiranta, ready to defy Hollywood blockbusters on domestic turf.

Launched in the US on April 28 under the Finnish title Sisu (Immortal was the English language working title), the feature opened at number 10 for top indie distributor Lionsgate which had acquired it off its buzzy festival platform world premiere at Toronto’s Midnight slot last fall.

For its US debut, Sisu managed to beat one of the weekend’s biggest Hollywood releases -Sony’s Big George Forman-The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World which grossed over $3m for an 11^th spot at the B.O., but from nearly three times the number of screens, according to ‘The numbers’ trade website.

Sisu also received overall positive reviews, with a 7.4/10IMDB rating and 93/100% from Rotten Tomatoes.

The WW Lapland-set actioner in which an ex-soldier (Jorma Tommila) goes on a Nazi-killing spree to defend his newly uncovered gold treasure, was described by RogerEbert.com reviewer Robert Daniels as “an outlandishly entertaining film mostly because, contrary to its deeper themes, it isn’t afraid to be nonsensical.”

The US launch also benefitted from Lionsgate’s savvy targeted marketing for genre male skewed-fans. The film’s trailer for instance was shown in front of John Wick: Chapter 4 on several thousand screens, and viewed nearly 40 million times online, according to Subzero Film Entertainment, jointly managed by Jokiranta and Helander.

WATCH THE TRAILER

In a statement, the duo said Sisu’s US launch “redeems years of work” that started in 2010 with the director’s first feature Rare Exports. “The dream that one day we would make a film in Finland that competes with Hollywood films in their own home market is now true.”

The €6m film starring as well Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan and Mimosa Willamo was produced in cooperation with executive producers Mike Goodridge of London-based Good Chaos, together with Gregory Ouanhon and Antonio Salas. It received support from the Finnish Film Foundation, Business Finland’s Audiovisual Production Incentive, Film Tampere and MTV/C More. Sony Pictures is in charge of international distribution outside the US and the Nordics, handled by Nordisk Film.

In Finland, the film has sold 154,469 tickets since its January 27 release and is still playing at number 7, while in Norway, cumulated admissions after two weeks on screens have passed 9,000. Sisu is also playing on Swedish screens since April 14. It opens May 5 in Iceland (via Smarabio) and May 11 in Denmark (via Another World).

The distribution in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Other Finnish directors that have made a splash in the US include Dome Karukoski (Tolkien) and Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger).