email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

BOX OFFICE Norway

Norwegian cinema admissions up 8.9% in 2016 – the best result in Europe

by 

- For the first time since 1975, Norwegian films controlled 23.9% of the market, with three local titles at the top of the charts

Norwegian cinema admissions up 8.9% in 2016 – the best result in Europe
The King’s Choice by Erik Poppe

With 13,119,180 cinema admissions in 2016 – 8.9% up on the previous year, with an 11.4% rise in box-office turnover – Norway attained its best result since 1983, and the year’s best percentage rise in Europe.

By selling 3,132,678 tickets, Norwegian productions controlled 23.9% of the market – the last time this happened was 40 years ago, when Norwegian director Ivo Caprino released The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (1975), which eventually went on to exceed a record number of 5.5 million tickets, in a country with a population of five million.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

“It is also rare that three Norwegian titles are numbers one to three on the charts of the top ten films,” explained Guttorm Petterson, managing director of Norwegian cinema association Film & Kino. The strongest performer was Norwegian director Erik Poppe’s The King’s Choice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erik Poppe
film profile
]
, which is among the nine films shortlisted for the Oscar nomination for Best Foreign-language Film.

“The influx of visitors to the cinemas just seems to continue, and 2017 also looks set to become a successful year, especially with several local family features in the pipeline,” Petterson concluded. The first of them, Norwegian director Rasmus A Sivertsen’s In the Forest of Huckybucky [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, took 223,087 admissions in its first week from 25 December.

Here is the list of the top ten films in Norway in 2016: The King’s Choice (713,276 admissions), Santa Swap – Merry Christmas Mr Andersen [+see also:
trailer
interview: Terje Rangnes
film profile
]
(496,760 admissions), Børning 2: On Ice [+see also:
trailer
interview: Hallvard Bræin
film profile
]
(438,137 admissions), Me Before You (407,747 admissions), Ice Age 5 (383,509 admissions), Deadpool (312,970 admissions), Rogue One – A Star Wars Story (312,344 admissions), Bridget Jones’ Baby [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(299,251 admissions), Suicide Squad (296,065 admissions), The Secret Life of Pets (291,385 admissions).

In 2016, Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
film profile
]
became the first Norwegian feature to receive the Nordic Council Film Prize, the largest and most prestigious award in the Nordic countries. In addition, Norwegian film exports are surging: the most recent international sales statistics for Norwegian films, covering 2014, shows a record turnover of €7.9 million, up 21% on 2012, according to the Norwegian Film Institute.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy