Nordic Admissions 2012 Part 2: Denmark, Sweden, Iceland

DENMARK
Best cinema attendance in 30 years - 28% market share
Boosted by an attractive mix of local historical titles and kids movies (six in the Top Ten), plus the latest James Bond franchise Skyfall, number one with over 914,000 tickets sold, general admissions in 2012 increased by nearly 12% from 2011 to 14.2 million, the best result in more than 30 years according to preliminary figures from the Danish Film Institute and Danish Distributors' association FAFID. Three Danish films crossed the 500,000 admissions in 2012 admissions, whereas in 2011, the highest Danish film was Dirch Passer's biopic A Funny Man with 484,000 admissions.

Danish films kept a solid grip of the national market with a 28% share, representing 4.1 million tickets from 21 films, the second highest level since 1981. The two biggest Danish hits of the year were directed by women - Anne-Grethe Bjarups's WW2 resistance drama This Life (764,516 admissions) and Susanne Bier's romantic comedy Love is All You Need (644,729 admissions). Only James Bond's latest adventures Skyfall secured more admissions on Danish screens for a first place at the Top Ten (914, 052 admissions).

Nikolaj Arcel's Oscar-nominated historical drama A Royal Affair was the third Danish film to sell more than 500,000 tickets.

The other three Danish films ranked in the local Top Ten were the kids franchise films Father of Four-At Sea (409,945 admission), My Sister's Kids-Home Alone (310,556 admissions), and Bille August's period drama Marie Krøyer (296,206 admissions).

Commenting on last year's performance of Danish films, Henrik Bo Nielsen, Head of the Danish Film Institute said: "Both 2011 and 2012 have been remarkable for Danish cinema, both at home at the box office and on the international scene where Danish films have had amazing results. We are confident that our film policy strategy of having a varied range of films in the market will continue to prove its success. Looking ahead, 2013 and even the pipeline for 2014 show strong titles and a good mix of experienced directors and new talents". First to hit the target in 2013 is Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt which has sold over 410,000 tickets in only three weeks.

TOP TEN DANISH FILMS 2012

Source: DFI/FAFID

SWEDEN
22% market share for Swedish films - 22% market share
2012 was an excellent year for cinema attendance in Sweden. General admissions climbed by nearly 12% from 2011 to 18.3 million. Swedish films sold over 4 million tickets, the second best result in the last ten years, representing 22% of the market, up 2.2% from 2011.

"2012 is the best year regarding cinema attendance in Sweden since 1988-1989, with admissions even higher than during the peak years of 2001-2003" said Torkel Stål from the Swedish Film Institute's statistics department. "The high figure is due to a greater number of films passing 100,000 admissions. This can in turn be an effect of the digitization of cinemas and better access of films in smaller venues, something we will investigate further this year. But the broad range of film offer is also an explanation, with everything from Swedish documentaries and French comedy drama to critically acclaimed action and thriller films reaching significant audiences."

Eight of the top 25 films of 2012 were Swedish, and Hamilton-in the Interest of the Nation was the sixth best-selling title and biggest Swedish hit of the year. The second most popular Swedish film was the comedy Once Upon a Time in Phuket, followed by Easy Money 2. Documentary films had a record year on screens with Palme stealing the show and becoming the ninth biggest Swedish film of the year and most successful Swedish documentary since Stefan Jarl's A Respectable Life (1979).

If Swedish films fared better than in 2011, European films also increased their share from 15 to 18%. Reversely US films loosened their grip on the market from 65 to 60%.

TOP TEN SWEDISH FILMS 2012

Source: Swedish Film Institute

ICELAND
Black's Game and The Deep in Top Ten - 11.3% market share
Thanks to Óskar Thór Axelsson's crime thriller Black's Game and Baltasar Kormákur's drama The Deep, Icelandic films had a 11.3% share of the box office (compared to 9.3% in 2011) and 9.4% of total admissions, up from last year's 8.4%. The two films were the only local titles in Iceland's Top 10 last year.

Axelsson's feature debut was second only to the James Bond's movie Skyfall in terms of gross earnings. Iceland's star director Kormákur was number four with The Deep and number eleven with his English speaking Contraband starring Mark Wahlberg, according to figures from SMAIS, the Icelandic Association of Film Rights Holders.

General admissions continued to fall for the third year in a row, from 1.51 million in 2011 to 1.44 million in 2012. However box office receipts increased by 2.3% to a total of ISK1,529,245,064, (approximately €8.8Million).

Commenting on the 2012 cinema results, Laufey Guðjónsdóttir, Head of the Icelandic Film Centre said: "In the shadow of past cuts, I think we can be happy to see two Icelandic films scoring so high in admissions last year. As the funding system is recovering thanks to the recent government funding increase, we hope the industry will be back on track soon and that the results will show already later in the year or early 2014".

Icelandic films set to open in 2013 include Ágúst Gudmundsson's Spooks and Spirits, Börkur Gunnarsson's Rock Bottom produced by Júlíus Kemp and Ingvar Thordarson, Benedikt Erlingsson's Of Horses and Men produced by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, and Ragnar Bragason's Metalhead.

TOP TEN ICELAND 2012

Source: SMAIS, Icelandic Association of Film Rights Holders.