10/07/2014 - Local fare controlled 25.6% of the theatrical market in the first half of 2014 – but two titles out of 13 contributed 61.4% of the result

During the first half of the year, Danish cinemas sold 5.7 million tickets, including 1.5 million for local releases, which secured a Danish market share of 25.6%. Two productions, both instalments of popular franchises – Danish directors Mikkel Serup’s The Reunion 2: The Funeral [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Giacomo Campeotto’s Father of Four: The Return of Uncle Sofus [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – accounted for 61.4% of the attendance for Danish movies. 

A recent audience analysis published by the Danish Film Institute concluded that the Danes love Danish movies: both in 2012 and 2013, they bought approximately four million tickets in theatres, 60% more than the 2.5 million purchased in 2009. And on a quality scale of 1 to 7, on average they rated films 5.71, as against 5.44 in 2009.

“Still, it is extremely disturbing that two Danish titles out of 13 local features and documentaries launched during the first six months can represent such a high percentage of local ticket sales,” said the chairman of trade association Danish Cinemas, Kim Pedersen, who pointed out that the nine latest Danish releases have performed poorly – only Pernille Fischer Christensen’s Someone You Love [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has exceeded 100,000 admissions.

Pedersen concluded that in June, one US feature (Josh Boone’s The Fault in Our Stars) attracted more audiences in 18 days that nine Danish films (four of them new releases) did during the whole month – “and the situation will hardly change in July, when no new local titles will be launched.”

The top ten films of 2014 so far in Denmark:

1. The Reunion 2: The Funeral (Denmark); dir: Mikkel Serup. 604,285 admissions
2. Frozen (US); dirs: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee. 292,862 admissions (555,789, including 2013)
3. Father of Four: The Return of Uncle Sofus (Denmark); dir: Giacomo Campeotto. 285,786 admissions
4. The Wolf of Wall Street (US); dir: Martin Scorsese. 246,373 admissions
5. The Lego Movie (US); dirs: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller. 216,539 admissions
6. 12 Years a Slave [+see also:
trailer
making of
interview: Michael Fassbender
film profile] (US/UK); dir: Steve McQueen. 198,546 admissions
7. Rio 2 (US); dir: Carlos Saldanha. 172,217 admissions
8. Someone You Love (Denmark); dir: Pernille Fischer Christensen. 165,293 admissions
9. Waltz for Monica [+see also:
trailer
interview: Edda Magnason
interview: Per Fly
film profile] (Sweden); dir: Per Fly. 159,414 admissions
10. X-Men: Days of Future Past (US); dir: Bryan Singer. 153,403 admissions