Launched last Friday by SF Studios on 292 Swedish screens, the film directed by Felix Herngren and his brother Måns Herngren’ (The 101-year Old Man Who Skipped the Bill & Disappeared) posted 205,259 admissions including previews for its three-day opening.

Hailed by newspapers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter as the best Swedish comedy of the year, the film beat the last Swedish non-Christmas opening record holder, The Girl Who Played with Fire that sold 172,000 tickets in September 2009.

Other Swedish film hits – Felix Herngren’s own The 100 Year-old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared and Hannes Holm’s A Man Called Ove had slightly higher opening figures (224,000 and 241,000 respectively) but both had their premiere on Christmas day.

In Solsidan-the movie (known as Sunny Side), the three couples from the TV show Alex & Anna, Freddie & Mickan and Ove & Anette, have to deal with new life crises such as divorce, childlessness and parental problems, as they spend their summer in the small and fashionable summer resort of Torekov in Skåne.
In the title roles are Felix Herngren, Henrik Dorsin, Johan Rheborg, Josephine Bornebusch, Malin Cederbladh and Mia Skäringer. The film was produced by FLX and Jarowskij with support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The original TV show was one of the most successful Swedish comedy series in recent times, followed on TV4 by nearly 2 million Swedes per episode across five seasons, between 2010-2015. Pontus Edgren, FLX managing partner told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “It’s not an easy task to turn a TV series into a film but we are very happy with the cinema result and these opening figures are definitely above expectations.”

In Norway where the series was followed by an average 230,000 Norwegians on TV2, the film spin off went straight to number one last weekend, selling 20,043 tickets from 148 screens. “We knew the Swedish series was well-known in Norway, but we’ve been taken aback by the film’s rocket opening, “said Antti Toiviainen, SF Studios’s Chief Sales & Distribution Officer who has upped the final estimates in Norway from around 60,000 to 100,000.

Finnish-born Toiviainen expects the film to post equally strong results in Finland where the series was also a hot proposition on YLE FEM. The Finnish release is set for December 29. However no premiere date has yet been confirmed for Denmark, the weakest market for Herngren’s satire of the Swedish middle class.