08/10/2013 - Danish director Mikkel Nørgaard’s first adaption of a Jussi Adler-Olsen thriller went straight to the top of the local charts with 175,314 admissions

With 175,314 admissions including previews (120,522 for regular performances), Danish director Mikkel Nørgaard’s thriller, The Keeper of Lost Causes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eugenio Mira
film profile], registered the best local opening in 10 years - No 2, Klown [+see also:
trailer
film profile], also by Nørgaard and producer Louise Vesth, of Zentropa Entertainments, reached 167,122 (140,333 excluding pre-screenings) in 2010.

“An outstanding performance – with such a strong ticket sale for the previews you would think that the premiere weekend would suffer, but no. The result indicates it will exceed at least 600,000 tickets,” said managing director Jan Lehmann, of Nordisk Film Biografdistribution, which released the film on 126 screens.

Launched on the Piazza Grande in the Locarno International Film Festival, The Keeper of Lost Causes – aka The Woman in the Cage – introduces the franchise of Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen’s novels about deputy detective superintendent Carl Mørck, of the Copenhagen Police, and Department Q, investigating shelved cases from the last 20 years.

While the second instalment in the series, The Absent One, is shooting for Nørgaard in Northern Germany, again with Danish actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Sweden’s Fares Fares as his sidekick, Denmark’s TrustNordisk has sold their first inquiry to more than 35 countries, including key territories Germany, Benelux, Switzerland, Australia and China.

Meanwhile, in Norway, Norwegian director Mikkel Brænne Sandemose’s action-adventure, Ragnarok [+see also:
trailer
film profile], catered for this year’s best opening of a local film in Norway, took 64,000 admissions. The Martin Sundland and Are Heidenstrøm production for Fantefilm Fiksjon follows an archeologist (Pål Sverre Hagen) exploring the secret of the Oseberg ship, from the Viking Age.