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BOX OFFICE Denmark

Denmark's 2016 admissions down 5.5% on 2015, local market share dropped 33.3%

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- In spite of Denmark delivering the two top titles in the charts - A Conspiracy of Faith and The Reunion 3 - local films had their worst year since 2009

Denmark's 2016 admissions down 5.5% on 2015, local market share dropped 33.3%
A Conspiracy of Faith by Hans Petter Moland

Although two local films, Hans Petter Moland’s A Conspiracy of Faith [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and Birger Larsen’s The Reunion 3, racked up 702,559 and 538,340 admissions, respectively, thus placing them at the top of the 2016 charts, Danish cinema had its worst year since 2009, with a market share of 21%, down 33.3% on 2015.

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s The Commune [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile
]
sold 301,785 tickets, to rank number nine in the list of top ten films; otherwise, US products (plus the UK-US co-production Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) managed to secure another above-average result for this century: 13.4 million admissions, or 5.5% less than in the previous year.

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But while 11 Danish productions were among the 25 most popular films in 2015, there were only four in 2016. Also, in 2015, only two Danish titles took fewer than 10,000 admissions, as against 11 in 2016.

One Danish film, Ali Abbasi’s thriller Shelley [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, toured several international festivals, but sold only 143 tickets in Denmark. With €323,000 in production funding from the Danish Film Institute behind it, every ticket was thus subsidised by €2,285.

“Of course, we must support artistic, low-budget films, but right now, it is out of balance,” said Kim Pedersen, chairman of the Danish Cinemas Association, who described the institute's current policy as “heading for disaster”. “It should increase backing for selected high-budget films that audiences want to see.”

Otherwise, Pedersen saw 2016 as a satisfactory year for the cinemas, with its mere 5.5% drop in admissions – mainly thanks to the brilliant performance of US products, which covered the seven remaining positions in the top ten, including three animated features.

“Two national releases this month (January) will hopefully launch a much better Danish film year than the previous one,” he concluded, referring to Ole Bornedal’s crime-dramedy Small Town Killers [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(opening on 12 January) and Fenar Ahmad’s action-thriller Darkland [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(opening on 19 January – read the news).

Denmark's top ten films of 2016 were A Conspiracy of Faith (702,559 admissions), The Reunion 3 (538,340 admissions), The Revenant (351,031 admissions), Zootopia (341,102 admissions), Rogue One – A Star Wars Story (336,054 admissions), Deadpool (333,721 admissions), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (333,479 admissions), The Secret Life of Pets (330,740 admissions), The Commune (301,785 admissions), Kung Fu Panda 3 (292,555 admissions).

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