Juletiden’s biggest local releases in the Nordic region A Man Called Ove and the stop motion animated feature Solan & Ludvig-The Big Cheese Race were successful Christmas bets for Nordisk Film Distribution in Sweden and Norway where the films took top spots resisting the attack from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, while SF's Holy Mess hit over 600,000 admissions.

In Sweden the warm-hearted A Man Called Ove based on Fredrik Backman’s best-selling novel stormed into the top of the charts during its opening weekend, beating The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared (239,259 vs 224,814) and snagging the title of best Swedish opener in modern times, according to Nordisk Film Distribution.

Last weekend the Hannes Holm film produced by Tre Vänner was still king of the Swedish charts in its second week above Star Wars-The Force Awakens, with a stronger admission per screen average than the Disney release (834 vs 755). On Wednesday (January 6th) the film just passed 700,000 admissions, making it possible for Ove to rival The 100 Year Old Man with its 1.5M final admissions.

Another local fare, the Christmas comedy Holy Mess by Helena Bergström continues to enrapture the Swedes and took a comfortable third place at the top Ten last weekend in its 8th week. The film produced by Sweetwater for Svensk Filmindustri has sold far more tickets than The Hunger Games-Mockingjay Part 2 (627,935 vs 470,132), released the same day (November 13) and is the biggest selling Swedish film of 2015.

A fourth Swedish film played strongly during the Christmas holidays: the family film Tsatsiki, farsan och olivkriget and stayed at number four in its 4th week. The new adventures of the Swedish/Greek boy Tsatsiki has sold a total of 135,989 tickets for Nordisk Film.

In Norway the Christmas day opener Solan & Ludvig-The Big Cheese went straight to number one for production outfit Maipo Film and is still dominating the charts in its second weekend, just above Star Wars. The second film based on Kjell Aukrust’s universe has sold 308,413 tickets so far. The first instalment directed as well by Rasmus A. Sivertsen ended up with 853,868 admissions.

Released as well on December 25, A Man Called Ove has lost only 10% of its audience since its opening weekend and is still at number three. Total admissions to date are 49,570. Playing at number four just like the previous weekend, despite a long eight week run, the Norwegian family adventure The Christmas King has been another children’s favourite during the holidays and total admissions have reached 279,851.

In Denmark, the family film Iqbal Farooq based on Manus Sareen’s children’s books has scored with young audiences during the holidays and managed to keep its number 2 position after Star Wars-The Force Awakens three weeks in a row. The Miso Film production released by Nordisk Film has now sold 143,338 tickets. At number three, the local family comedy Villads fra Valby released on Christmas day by UIP/Regner Grasten was number three last weekend and total admissions are nearing 60.000.

In another genre, the critically-acclaimed Land of Mine climbed from number 9 to 8 last weekend with Nordisk Film increasing the print run from 55 to 59. After five weeks, Martin Zandvliet’s film has sold 129,221 tickets.

In Finland the local comedy Off-key by Lauri Nurkse opened at number two last weekend, just after Star Wars, selling 23,017 tickets from 11 screens. Lapland Odyssey 2, another Nordisk Film release is showing strong legs, playing at number nine after 14 weeks. The film by Teppo Airaksinen added 3,727 admissions to reach 382,261.

In Iceland the only local title at the Top 20 last weekend was Rams, still playing in one cinema after 32 weeks. Total admissions for Iceland’s Oscar entry have passed 21, 000.


Sources: FAFID, DFI, FRÍSK, Filmikamari, Finnish Film Foundation, Norske Filmbyråers Forening, Filmweb.no, Film & Kino, Filmägarnas Kontrollbyrå, Nordisk Film Distribution.