24/01/2018 - 2017 was a great year for Swedish cinema, driven mainly by domestic films and international co-productions

According to the box-office figures recently published by the Swedish Film Institute, the most-watched film of 2017 was Felix and Måns Herngren’s comedy The Sunny Side [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which racked up over one million admissions in Sweden as well as 200,000 admissions in Norway and Finland, grossing around 100 million Swedish crowns (€10.17 million). The Sunny Side is an adaptation of a popular TV show – mostly unknown outside of the Scandinavian region – and focuses on the themes of parenthood and complicated relationships.

Moreover, another Swedish comedy directed by the Herngren brothers also secured a spot in the 2017 top ten – namely, The 101-Year Old Man Who Skipped Out on the Bill and Disappeared [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which took 381,831 admissions and reached eighth place.

The most successful foreign film in Swedish cinemas was, unsurprisingly, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (696,896 admissions), followed by several family films, such as Despicable Me 3 (613,266), Beauty and the Beast (524,111), Moana (475,918), Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge (475,858) and The Boss Baby (381,831). The top ten is rounded off by the horror It: Chapter One (500,389 admissions, coming in in fifth place) and the erotic romantic drama Fifty Shades Darker (381,309 admissions, just scraping in in tenth place).

On the whole, this was a very prolific period for national cinema, as Swedish films were often in the spotlight both nationwide and abroad. For instance, Ruben Östlund’s satirical drama The Square [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile] won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Janus Metz Pedersen's biopic Borg/McEnroe [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] opened the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, Jens Assur's Ravens [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jens Assur
film profile] won the Thessaloniki International Film Festival's Golden Alexander, and Tarik Saleh's thriller The Nile Hilton Incident [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tarik Saleh
film profile] received the Jury Prize at Sundance.

The numbers published by the Swedish Film Institute confirm that blockbusters are still driving local demand, but international co-productions and domestic films still have a considerable impact on the market shares. In this respect, the CEO of the organisation, Anna Serner, recently said: “Filmmakers have so many stories that deserve to receive great conditions to become great films. It is gratifying to see that the general quality is increasing through clearer requirements and goal management. Now, I hope that the Swedish public will understand that it is worth paying for and seeing Swedish films.”