The Girl who Kicked tops the charts

by Annika Pham

11/12/2009 - The final instalment of the Millennium trilogy The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest [trailer] by Daniel Alfredson easily held on to its box office lead in Sweden, Denmark and Norway last weekend. But Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard [trailer] also fought for its share of the Scandinavian market.

In its second weekend on release, The Girl who Kicked launched by Nordisk Film, sold 263,111 tickets on 185 screens in Sweden, 246,953 on 127 screens in Denmark, and 139,622 on 110 screens in Norway. Meanwhile, in its 12th week on general release across Scandinavia, the second film based on Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire [trailer], was still number seven in Sweden (over one million admissions), ten in Denmark (802,000 admissions) and 11 in Norway (485,000).

In its opening weekend, Luc Besson’s animated film Arthur 2 sold almost as many tickets in Sweden as in Denmark (around 8,700) for Scanbox, taking fourth and sixth place in their respective Top Tens. In Norway, the film came in at number eight, with 3,000 admissions on 40 screens for Euforia.

A handful of local films are performing strongly and showing ‘long legs’. In Sweden, Ulf Malmros’s The Wedding Photographer, released by Sandrew Metronome, held on to an excellent sixth place in its eighth week on release, with a total of 304,628 admissions on 71 screens. The comedy starring Björn Starrin and Tuva Novotny is due to be launched internationally by NonStop Sales at the upcoming European Film Market. The actress-turned-director Helena Bergström’s second film Så olika (‘So Different’) passed the 86,000 admissions mark in its fifth week for SF.

In Denmark, the Christmas comedy The Christmas Party by Rasmus Heide, with Thure Lindhardt as the lead, continued to add numbers in its fifth week (over 161,000 admissions for Scanbox), and in Norway, the Christmas film for children Magic Silver [trailer] by Roar Uthaug & Katarina Launing increased its admissions by 3% in its fourth week (250,000 total admissions for Sandrew Metronome).

Sources: FAFID, Denmark, Norske Filmbyråers Forening, Norway, Filmägarnas Kontrollbyrå, Sweden