29/12/2009

This year was a record year for Norwegian children’s films on national screens. Five such movies sold over one million tickets, taking as much as 40% of all admissions for Norwegian films, according to the Norwegian cinema association Film & Kino.

The admissions record for domestic kids’ movies set in 2007 has been now broken by 200,000 admissions. The two titles still driving up admissions are Christmas fairy tale Magic Silver by Roar Uthaug and Katarina Launing, and Åsleik Engmark’s Knerten [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. They are based respectively on a very popular TV series and on literary classics by Anne Cath Vestly.

Produced by Storm Rosenberg, Magic Silver has now sold over 300,000 admissions for Sandrew Metronome and the numbers should continue to rise steadily during the Christmas holidays.

Knerten, the feature debut of stand-up comic Engmark, tells the story of a little boy who creates an imaginary little friend, Knerten, made of firewood. The film is the sixth most successful Norwegian film of 2009 with almost 350,000 admissions. It was produced by Paradox Film, who is already preparing a sequel. Knerten will make its international premiere at the upcoming Berlinale, in the Generation KPlus section.

The other two Norwegian children’s movies that passed the 100,000 admissions mark this year are the franchise film The Junior Olsen Gang and the Black Gold (189,054 admissions) by Arne Lindtner Næss, produced by Nordisk Film ; and Atle Knudsen’s ORPS: The Movie (106,603 admissions), produced by Monster Film.

The fifth children’s title, Christian Lo’s Best Friends, is the only one of the lot based on an original script and garnered over 38,000 admissions.