The feel-good movies Klown-the Final, My Father Marianne, The Renovation and Mountain Madness are scoring with local crowds. 

After sluggish performances last year in Finland, Sweden and Norway, local films are back in favour and continue to perform strongly in Denmark, according to the latest admission figures from the Nordics.

In Denmark, three local films were in the top 10 last weekend. Klown-the Final - the last instalment in the Klown trilogy, has topped the charts five weeks in a row, and sold 413,826 total tickets. With 218 admissions-per-screen average, the film shows strong legs and is in a good position to equal the second film in the franchise Klown-Forever (512,056 admissions in 2015).

At number 5, just above UIP’s The Invisible Man, the transgender movie A Perfectly Normal Family released by Nordisk Film sold 10,254 tickets from 108 screens to reach 35,594 in its second week, a solid performance for Malou Reymann’s debut feature.

Anders Refn’s WW2 drama Into the Darkness came in at number 10, selling an extra 4,602 tickets in its 8^thweek, for a total of 365,341. The Scanbox release is the second biggest Danish hit of 2020 after Klown-the Final.

Meanwhile two Nordic animated films stayed the top 20: the Danish production Dreambuilders with 68,781 total admissions after 4 weeks for SF Studios, and the Norwegian film Ella Bella Bingo, with 37,14 total admissions for Scanbox.

In Finland, four Finnish films have already crossed the 100,000 admissions bar since the beginning of the year, which is the same number as for the full 2019. In February, domestic fare sold 385,000 tickets, 40.2% of all admissions.

Last weekend two local films topped the charts: Taneli Mustonen’s comedy The Renovation, watched by 116,220 Finns after three weeks on screens via Nordisk Film. The film produced by Solar Films tells of a couple who inherits the 'house of their dreams' and end up doing nightmarish renovations.

On pole position was SF Studios’ kids franchise Hayflower, Quiltshoe and Feisty First-Grader by Lenka Hellstedt, with 151,310 total admissions in its third week.

The biopic Helene about Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck added 3,205 admissions for a total tally of 171,157 after seven weeks for Nordisk Film. It ranked number 11.

The feelgood female-oriented road movie Ladies of Steel by Pamela Tola has now reached 240,604 admissions, making it the biggest Finnish film of the year.

In Iceland, Klown the Final is making a splash due to the story set in Iceland and national success of the Klown franchise. Released by Sena, the film was third after Sonic the Hedgehog and The Invisible Man last weekend and admissions after three weeks are at 9,503.

Another Danish title was in the top 20: the animated film Checkered Ninja (Sena), watched by 2,484 Icelanders after five weeks.

Meanwhile the local film The Garden by Ragnar Bragason (Sena) has now passed 8,414 admissions after eight weeks.

In Norway, the comedy Mountain Madness (Fjols til Fjells) by Petter Holmsen was number one for the second consecutive weekend. So far 64,946 Norwegians have flocked to the cinemas to watch the reboot of the 1957 classic, penned by comedy specialist Karsten Fullu (Captain Sabertooth and the Magic Diamond, Louis & Luca Mission to the Moon).

The quality family adventure film The Crossing by Johanne Helgeland is also performing strongly for Nordisk Film. In its third week, the film remained stable (only 9% drop) with a solid 129 admissions per screen average. So far 94,225 Norwegians have seen the drama, backed by rave reviews.

André Øvredal’s English/Norwegian language fantasy film Mortal starring Nat Wolff opened at number 7 for Nordisk Film, selling 6,342 tickets from 142 screens.

In Sweden My Father Marianne took top spot for the second consecutive weekend. Mårten Klingberg’s comedy for which Rolf Lassgård was applauded in the local media for his tour de force performance, has sold 125,369 tickets so far for Nordisk Film.

This is the second local title since the beginning of the year, to take the top spot, after JerryMaya’s Detective Agency-The Mystery of the Train Robber. Last weekend the latter was number four after My Father Marianne, Sonic the Hedgehog and The Invisible Man. After four weeks, the SF Studios release has clocked in 163,588 admissions.
Another SF Studios family film continues to add numbers: the animated film Pelle No-Tail which has sold 104,514 tickets in seven weeks.

It is also worth mentioning the exceptional performance in the Nordics of the Palme d’or and Oscar winning film Parasite which was number three last weekend in Denmark (173,501 total admissions, Camera Film), number four in Finland (129,597 admissions, Future Film), number four in Norway (126,668 admissions, Arthaus) and number seven in Sweden (237,844 admissions, TriArt).

Sources: FAFID, Danish Film Institute, FRÍSK, Filmikamari, Finnish Film Foundation, Norske Filmbyråers Forening, Filmweb.no, Filmägarnas Kontrollbyrå.