Box office declined in all Nordic territories in 2024, but less dramatically than anticipated. Most local analysts had predicted the slowdown, and many now see chances of better results in 2025.

As in other Western markets, the drop in Nordic ticket sales was partly attributable to the US writers and actors strikes which shut down Hollywood filmmaking in late 2023 - and meant a far thinner product supply of big US titles in 2024. Nordic films are still also struggling to reach audiences in each other’s markets to match pre-pandemic figures.

In Finland, admissions were at €6.8 million, down 20.7% on the average pre-pandemic figures from 2015 to 2019, and also 5.5% less than 2023. The box office total of €89.5 million was 4.3% down on 2023 (average admission price has risen slightly).

The big Finnish hit of 2024 was writer-director Tiina Lymi’s Stormskerry Maja (Stormskärs-Maja), the historical drama based on the books by Swedish-Finnish author Anni Blomqvist. This was both the number one film of the year, outperforming Hollywood tentpole films like Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine, and the most-watched Swedish language film in Finland in recorded history (since 1972), reaching 470,000 admissions.

Encouragingly, local films did well in 2024, starting the year very strongly and achieving a 31.6% market share, eventually posting €2.14 million admissions. Animated feature Niko – Beyond the Northern Lights passed the 100,000 admissions mark. Children’s picture Hayflower, Quiltshoe and the Chicken (Heinähattu, Vittitossu ja kana) was in the top 10 for the year, as were comedies Luottomies-elokuva: All In and Kyllä isä osaa – elokuva, as well as Long Good Thursday (Mielensäpahoittajan rakkaustarina), a drama from Mika Kaurismäki.

Norwegian results provided less cause for optimism. Ticket sales weren’t helped by the unusually good weather in the summer months - and there was a 12.7% decline in total cinema admissions in 2024 compared to 2023. The fall was heavier among non-Norwegian films (33.9%) than Norwegian films (22.3%), but every type of film suffered.

Overall admissions in 2024 in Norway were 8,170,403, down from 9,355,303 in 2023, and well below the pre-pandemic average of 11,899,449. However, Norwegian films’ market share rose 3% to 25% in 2024.

Older Norwegian audiences remain doggedly enthusiastic about their war films. Erik Poppe’s Quisling: The Final Days(Quislings siste dager), about the notorious Nazi collaborator, had decent revenues of €.2.40 million.

Another Second World War picture, Nr. 24, did even better business, generating €3.44 million in Norwegian ticket sales - and later becoming the most streamed film in Norway on Netflix.

Some analysts, though, suggested that both films would have expected stronger box office pre-pandemic.

It was a rosier picture in Denmark. The Danish Association of Film Distributors (FAFID) and The Danish Cinema Association (DB) expressed relief that 2023 figures were roughly similar to those of the previous year, with 9.8 million admissions, only a 2.7% decline on 2023. Family films (both Hollywood franchises like Inside Out 2 and local films) dominated the box office, accounting for 29% of the market.

Danish films themselves, selling 2.3 million tickets overall, maintained their market share of 24%, although fewer Danish films were released (22 as opposed to 35 in 2023). Seven of the year’s top 20 were local films - and three were in the top 10. Niclas Bendixen’s Comedy-drama When In Rome (Rom), about an elderly couple re-living their youthful romance in the eternal city, was the most successful local picture of the year. Box office has also been bolstered by subscription schemes like Cinema Club Denmark, a curated programme that allows half price tickets for 10 films.

When looking at Swedish ticket numbers, one has to keep in mind that Sweden has a population of about 10.5 million inhabitants, while the population of the other big Nordic countries varies between 5.5 - 5,9 million. Preliminary data unveiled by the Swedish Cinema Owners' Association in mid January 2025 revealed that there had been 600,000 fewer cinema visits in 2024 than in 2023 (10.6 million as opposed to 11.2 million the year before).

“It's actually better than we dared to believe,” Peter Fornstam, Svenska Bio, chairman of the Swedish Cinema Owners’ Association, commented, citing the covid legacy, inflation, and Hollywood strikes as major challenges for exhibitors.

The upside was the strong performance of certain local films. Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson’s documentary The Last Journey (Den sista resan), with over 400,000 admissions, was one unexpected runaway success - the most successful documentary ever in Swedish history. Ted Kjellsson’s family film Håkan Bråkan 2 was also a hit, posting well over 200,000 admissions.

At the time of writing, final figures aren’t available, but the Swedish market share is expected to be at just over 20% - an improvement on last year, when it was at around 17%.

“It was actually a bit better than our estimations. We got some figures after the summer, and the decrease year on year [then] was 10%,” Torkel Stål, analyst at the Swedish Film Institute, said of what turned out to be only a 5% decline in admissions.

Titles from other Nordic countries made a small impact at the Swedish box office in 2024, but Nordic countries do make their own versions of hits from their Nordic neighbours. For instance, 2024 Swedish crime caper Eddie Åhgren’s Jönssonligan kommer tillbaka is the latest feature based on Danish franchise The Olsen Gang (Olsen-banden).

Iceland that with its 0,4 million inhabitants is the smallest Nordic market, likewise witnessed decline. Admissions were at 904,809 in 2024, down from 1,003,602 in 2023, albeit there were fewer releases - 131 in 2024 as opposed to 141 in 2023. There were 76 releases of US films, down from 91 in 2023 (another reason why box office was soft). Gross box office was at around €10.8 million, a decline of 5.8%.

“What helped us was a really strong Icelandic film which actually topped the box office for this year,” Daníel Traustasonfrom the Icelandic rights holder association FRISK commented of the success of Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Touch (Snerting, **Iceland’s Oscar contender). This had a reported Icelandic box office haul of €743,361, better even than the Pixar animated hit Inside Out 2, which generated €642,946 in Icelandic ticket sales.

Icelandic box office market share was at 14%. Among the most popular non-Icelandic Nordic titles was Loveable(Elskling), a Norwegian divorce drama from director Lilja Ingolfsdottir.