In spite of strong local fare, Icelandic admissions decrease in 2012
- Icelandic directors Óskar Thór Axelsson's Black's Game and Baltasar Kormákur's The Deep made the Top 10 Films, but the total result was 4.3% less than in 2011
The strong performances of Icelandic directors Óskar Thór Axelsson’s Black’s Game [+see also:
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film profile] are the main reason why local fare controlled 10.5% of the box-office in 2012, up 1.2% on 2011, according to project co-ordinator Tjörvi Thórsson, of the Icelandic Film Centre. Total admissions dropped to 1.4 million, 4.3% less the previous year, while gross box office receipts went up by 2.7%, to €8.8 million, in the island with a 320,000 population.
Black’s Game – Axelsson’s debut thriller about the change of Reykjavik’s crime and drug scene in the 1990s – reached 62,783 admissions,while Kormákur sold 49,698 tickets for his ship-wreck drama, The Deep, and another 29,680 for Contraband, a US remake of Icelandic director Óskar Jónasson’s Reykjavik Rotterdam [+see also:
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Dominated by American fare, the 161 releases in 2012 included French directors Olivier Nakache-Eric Toledano’s Intouchables [+see also:
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film profile], which took 64,735 admissions to become the most popular non-Icelandic, non-English-language film ever in Iceland. – This year three, probably four, local features are on the premiere list: Ágúst Gudmundsson’s Spooks and Spirits, Benedikt Erlingsson’s Horses – A Love Story, Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead, perhaps Dagur Kári’s Rocketman.
ICELAND’S LIST OF TOP TEN FILMS 2012
1. Skyfall [+see also:
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Local distributor: Myndform – 79,483 admissions
2. Intouchables - Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano (France)
Sena Film – 64,735 admissions
3. The Dark Knight Rises - Christopher Nolan (US)
Samfilm – 63,682 admissions
4. Black’s Game - Óskar Thór Axelsson (Iceland)
Sena – 62,783 admissions
5. The Avengers - Joss Whedon (US)
Samfilm – 52,174 admissions
6. The Deep - Baltasar Kormákur (Iceland)
Sena – 49,698 admissions
7. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Peter Jackson (US)
Myndform – 35,081 admissions
8. The Hunger Games - Gary Ross (US)
Myndform – 33,272 admissions
9. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted - Eric Darell, Tom McGrath (US)
Samfilm – 32,805 admissions
10. The Amazing Spider-Man - Marc Webb (US)
Sena – 26,782 admissions
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