19/01/2011

With nearly 2.5 million admissions for the third year in a row, local films had a 23.2% market share in 2010, an “all-time high,” according to Nina Refseth, head of the Norwegian Film Institute.

“This proves that Norwegian films have built a solid reputation in their home market,” she said. “As many times before, the year opened a bit on the weak side, but as the autumn films hit the market the share grew substantially. Unlike 2008 and 2009, there wasn’t one single hit that made the numbers. But I consider it very positive that ten films had over 100,000 admissions, and a few more seem to pass this mark in early 2011.”

Twigson Ties the Knot, the second film based on a classic children’s book series, was the second biggest film of 2010 (after Avatar, which opened in late December 2009) and the top Norwegian film of the year with 402,651 admissions. Martin Lund’s live action-animated family film beat out other blockbusters such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (391,602 admissions) and Inception (361,544). A total of four children’s films were among the ten most successful Norwegian films of 2010.

Two other Norwegian films released in October scored with local audiences: André Øvredal’s suspense film The Troll Hunter [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andre Øvredal
film profile] and the thriller Nokas by Erik Skjoldbjærg, respectively number eight and ten among the year’s most popular films.

However, despite good results for local films, overall cinema attendance was down 13% from 2009, at 11 million.