Zentropa nears 1 million admissions with Riders of Justice and Another Round

Released by Nordisk Film in 130 Danish cinemas on November 19, Riders of Justice stormed to the top of the Danish charts, selling an impressive 125,887 tickets for its opening four days, or 150,486 tickets including previews.

According to Nordisk Film, this is the best opening for a film in Danish cinemas in 2020 and the best opening for a Danish film since the animated film Checkered Ninja (222,760 admissions for its first weekend in December 2018). Riders of Justice is also Anders Thomas Jensen’s most successful film debut on screen, after Men and Chicken which launched in 2015 with 91,326 tickets.

Frederik Honoré film, director of Nordisk Film Distribution in Denmark said: "We took a risk by forwarding the film's premiere by five weeks, but it is quite clear now that it was the right decision." Honoré says Riders of Justice’s opening figures are 38% higher than Nordisk Film’s estimates and he expects numbers to continue to climb thanks to a positive word of mouth and rave reviews.

Jensen’s comedy drama starring Mads Mikkelsen, Nikola Lie Kaas, Nicolas Bro, and Lars Brygmann is the second mega-hit of the year for Zentropa after Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, watched so far by 771,000 Danes in local cinemas.

Together, the two films have sold a record 920,000 tickets in just two months, or a quarter of last year’s total 3,477,000 admissions for Danish films.

Sisse Graum Jørgensen who served as producer on both films said: “Both Anders Thomas Jensen and all of us at Zentropa are very happy with [Riders of Justice’s] opening weekend. It’s the first time we work with Anders Thomas in his capacity as director and we’re proud that the audience has embraced the film. We think it's fantastic that the Danish audience is so willing to go to the cinema these days and we are thrilled to have delivered a film that both critics and ordinary Danes feel is worth a trip to the cinema."

Riders of Justice was supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.  

Read our in-depth interview with Anders Thomas Jensen CLICK HERE