26/01/2009

Thanks to the phenomenal success of the WWII resistance film Flame & Citron [+see also:
trailer
film profile], seen by one in seven Danes over the age of 15, the local market share for Danish films reached 33% in 2008, up 7% from 2007.

Admissions for Danish films passed the 4.3 million mark, a level not seen since 1976 according to the Danish Film Institute (DFI). With 667,601 admissions, Flame & Citron, produced by Nimbus Film in co-production with Germany’s Wüste Film, was the biggest hit of the year.

Another four Danish films were in the Top Ten: the comedy Take the Trash (448,855 admissions), the sci-fi animation film Journey to Saturn (400,501), the franchise family film Father of Four: Back Home (388,990) and Denmark’s entry for an Oscar nomination, Worlds Apart [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (314,545).

“This year, Danish filmmakers have given us a varied repertoire, from films that have attracted a large, young audience, to entertaining and thought provoking stories for the mature cinema-goer,” said DFI CEO Henrik Bo Nielsen. “Another important aspect of the success is that the mixture of films has been available throughout the year, thus whetting the audience's appetite.”

Just as in 2007, Danish films pushed up general admissions, by as much as 10% from 2007 to 13.2m in 2008. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Mamma Mia! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] were second and third at the Top Ten, selling over 500,000 tickets each.

In 2009, 29 new Danish titles will be released domestically. Although released at the end of December, the coming-of-age film Max Embarrassing, selected in the Berlinale 2009 Generation KPlus, is doing very well at the box office (over 146,000 admissions so far), while Katrine Windfeld’s political thriller The Escape has sold over 50,000 tickets since January 9.

Other major Danish films set to open soon include the Swedish/Danish mainstream movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Ole Bornedal’s thriller Deliver us from Evil.