18/11/2005

Danish films continue to conquer the hearts of local audiences, driving admissions upwards, contrary to the rest of Europe. According to new figures published by the Danish Film Institute, 3.7m tickets have been sold to Danish films in 2005, a level not seen in 24 years. And by the end of 2005, the market share for Danish films should be well over 30%, a strong increase from last year’s 24%.

In 2004 four titles had passed the 200,000 admissions each, but this year six have already hit this level and more: on top of the list is the children’s film Father of Four by Claus Bjerre, scoring 457.037 admissions in only three weeks, followed by Per Fly’s Manslaughter [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (read the article) (386.850), Anders Thomas Jensen’s Adam’s Apples [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anders Thomas Jensen
interview: Mads Mikkelsen
interview: Tivi Magnusson
film profile] (355,389), Tomas Villum Jensen’s The Sun King (345,634), Carsten Myllerup’s children film Oskar & Josefin (252,012). The new hit on the block, Jonas Elmer’s Nynne is now at 221,911 admissions in only two weeks but this Danish version of Bridget Jones produced and released by Angel Productions should easily continue its climb of the box office until the end of the year.

However for now, the general admission figures are still down by around 7% from 2004, because, according to Maja Giese, Head of the DFI’s Distribution and Marketing Unit, there has been no breakout blockbuster yet along the lines or The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. «On the other hand, there have been a large number of new Danish films that have been considerably varied, fuelling cinema-going. Danish cinema appears to have become a focal point for a lot of people», she notices. A handful of big international films will be opening over the next month and we expect this will tip the scales back, bringing ticket sales for the entire year up to last year’s levels (12,7m).

The new drive from future blockbusters will start today with the release by Sandrew Metronome of Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire on 80 prints. Other new releases include The Beat My Heart Skipped [+see also:
trailer
film profile] distributed by Camera Film in 5 cinemas, and Darwin’s Nightmare released with 3 prints by Sunrise Film.