Erik Poppe’s film has the best opening weekend of the year. 

Released last Friday by Nordisk Film Distribution on 189 screens, The King’s Choice (Kongens nei) went straight to the top of the Norwegian charts with 123,962 admissions (including previews). Even without previews, the film had 116,799 admissions, making it the fifth best Norwegian opener since 2002 after Max Manus (134,842), The Wave (136,289), The Christmas of Louis & Nolan (138,845) and Kon-Tiki (165,222) according to Filmweb.no. Norway’s pick for the Oscar’s race for Best Foreign Language also received five star reviews in most Norwegian newspapers such as Dagbladet that tagged The King’s Choice as Erik Poppe’s best film. 

Last weekend another Norwegian film was listed in the local Top 10: the family film Gilbert’s Grim Revenge based on a book by Stein Erik Lunde, that came in at number six. After three weeks on screens, the Sharing release has sold 34,000 tickets. Other local films in the Top 20 include Sara Johnsen’s Framing Mom (Norsk Filmdistribusjon), with 19,492 admissions after three weeks, The Lion Woman (Nordisk Film) 37,328 total admissions after 5 weeks and Cave (Another World Entertainment), 21,542 admissions after 4 weeks.

Elsewhere in the Nordic region, local titles in Denmark, Finland and Iceland entered the national Top chart at number two after Bridget Jones’ Baby (UIP).

In Denmark the comedy Swinger by Mikkel Munch-Fals sold a total of 24,739 tickets in its opening weekend. The film was released by SF Studios on 105 screens. In its second weekend, In the Blood, the directorial debut of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo scriptwriter Rasmus Heisterberg, came in at number 17 for Scanbox.

Finland had no less than six local films in the top 20 and three in the Top 10 last weekend, reflecting the diversity of films appealing to different audiences. 

At number two, the family film Rolli and the Secret of All Time based on the popular fictional troll sold 18,508 tickets for a total of 53,489 after two weekends. This is the second Rolli film directed by Taavi Vartia for Matila Röhr Productions. The youth film Born in Heinola by debut director Tuukka Temonen stayed at number three in its third weekend. The film about director´s own youth in a hugely popular small town punk band was released by Kuusan kino. ´

The festival hit Little Wing opened at number 6, launched on 57 screens by B-Plan. So far 7,629 Finns have watched Selma Vilhunen’s feature debut. Other Finnish films in the top 20 include Saara Cantell’s drama Devil’s Bride (Nordisk Film), 17,952 admissions after three weeks, the award-winning The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (B-Plan), 25,037 admissions after four weeks, and the chiller Bodom (Future Film) that posted 57,383 admissions after 6 weeks.

In Iceland Baltasar Kormákur’s The Oath was number two last weekend after two consecutive weekends at number one. The thriller released by Sena is the biggest Icelandic film of the year with 28,991 admissions so far.

In Sweden, the first local film in the Top 20 was Pernilla August’s The Serious Game, ranked number 15. The period drama released by Nordisk Film has attracted 30,951 Swedes after three weeks on screens. 

Sources: FAFID, DFI, FRÍSK, Filmikamari, Norske Filmbyråers Forening, Filmweb.no, Filmägarnas Kontrollbyrå.