Four-star UK release for Headhunters while Trier continues strong run in France

by Jorn Rossing Jensen

18/04/2012 - Norwegian director Morten Tyldum’s thriller Headhunters [trailer] (Hodejegerne) had a four-star opening in the UK on April 6, when Momentum Pictures launched it on 83 screens.

The adaptation of Jo Nesbø’s best-selling novel, with Aksel Hennie in the lead took a three-day gross of £264,769 from 83 sites (the same screen average as Millennium No 1, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [trailer]), to become No 11 on the UK-Ireland charts. This week Momentum expanded the release, with the film now showing in 105 theatres.

“Taut, tense and terrific,” enthused the Daily Mirror, adding that it could well be the thriller of the year. Another three British dailies - The Sun, Daily Express and Daily Mail - agreed, all giving it four out of five stars in their reviews.

Most recently Headhunters, which sold 560,000 tickets domestically for Nordisk Film Distribusjon AS to reach number two on the national charts in 2011, was awarded the Jury Prize at France’s Beaune International Thriller Film Festival (which ended on April 1).

Meanwhile, Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31st [trailer, film focus] continued its strong run in France, where by this week (April 16) it had reached 125,000 admissions for Memento Films. It is already the most popular Norwegian film in France ever, breaking the record of Bent Hamer’s Kitchen Stories which in 2003 totalled 75,000.

“Although the number of screens will be reduced from 66 to 60 after this week, our estimate for the film is that it will have sold 150,000 tickets in the end,” said Alexandre Mallet-Guy, head of Memento, which initially released Trier’s second feature in 38 theatres.