First half of 2009 up by 27%

by Annika Pham

21/08/2009 - Driven by the exceptional performance of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [trailer, film focus], which pushed the market share for Swedish films up to 32.4%, total admissions in Sweden during the first six months of the year reached 7.5m, up 26.9% over the same period in 2008.

According to figures published by the Swedish Film Institute (SFI), admissions in Sweden were at their highest level since 2004, and June alone was the best since 1994, with over one million tickets sold.

Seven Swedish films passed the 100,000 admissions mark, against three during the same period last year. Dragon Tattoo was by far the biggest hit of the year with over 1.1m admissions. The second most popular Swedish film was Mammoth [trailer] (142,629 admissions), followed by the Berlinale 2009 selection Glowing Stars [trailer] and the new adventures of the popular animation characters Pettson & Findus.

US films had a market share of 55.6%, UK films of 3.4% and French films of 1.2%. “The excellent figures for the first half of the year show again that during a recession, cinema attendance tends to remain strong,” said Thomas Bryntesson, head of Statistics at the SFI.

Admissions during the second part of 2009 will no doubt reach new records. Another 21 Swedish films are set to open before the end of this year, including the second and third Millennium films, respectively The Girl Who Played with Fire [trailer] (September 18) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest [trailer] (November 27).