03/02/2016 - Takings and audiences for 2015 proved huge for domestic features

1944 by Elmo Nüganen

Estonian cinema celebrated a record year in 2015, with 3,093,281 spectators, resulting in national box-office takings of €15,566,739. This represents an 18% increase compared to 2014 (which saw 2.6 million viewers create a cash income of €12.7 million).

Domestic films also had a record number of viewers, with 350,635 spectators watching homegrown products. The previous record was achieved in 2007, when 232,478 people saw Estonian films in the cinema. The domestic-film market share rose to 11.33%, with the country’s per capita figure for admissions standing at 2.36.

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Estonia’s biggest box-office success in 2015 was the Hollywood animated blockbuster Minions, with 156,104 viewers. Two domestic films managed to break into the year’s top ten of the country’s box office: epic war film 1944 [+see also:
trailer
film profile], with 115,559 viewers, and the children’s adventure The Secret Society of Souptown [+see also:
trailer
film profile], with 90,746 viewers. Finnish-Estonian co-production and Golden Globe nominee The Fencer [+see also:
trailer
interview: Ivo Felt
film profile] (released in September) garnered over 40,000 viewers, while the quasi-horror story Ghost Mountaineer [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (released in November) pulled in over 50,000 viewers.