03/03/2006

Thanks to Aleksi Mäkelä’s Matti: Hell Is For Heroes, released by Buena Vista – which has recorded 432,000 admissions in less than two months, or 54% of the total admissions for Finnish films since the beginning of the year – domestic films have already attracted more cinemagoers in January-February 2006 than during all of 2005, with 942,795 admissions against 940,000 from last year, representing a phenomenal domestic market share of 55%.

Loosely based on the life of Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykänen, Matti (produced by Solar Films) has been seen by over 8% of the Finnish population so far. The only films that have previously reached that level of success in Finland are the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Bad Boys: A True Story [+see also:
trailer
film profile], another Solar Films production, which garnered 615,000 local admissions in 2003 – 11% of the Finnish population.

Other Finnish films that are currently performing well at the box office include FC Venus, a football comedy by Joona Tena (204,795 admissions) that was released by Nordisk Film; Pekka Karjalainen’s comedy Jackpot (30,099 in less than ten days), under Buena Vista’s banner; Klaus Härö’s war drama Mother of Mine (188,959 admissions); and Dome Karukoski’s youth film Beauty and the Bastard [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (127,391) which screened at the last Berlin Kinderfilmfest 14+ section.

According to Harri Ahokas, head of distribution at the Finnish Film Foundation, these great results clearly indicate that “domestic films have a high potential in Finnish theatres when there is an optimal amount of different films to choose from. It seems that, at the moment, the films are not in mutual competition but rather support each other, so the domestic market share is at an amazing 55%”, he stressed.

With seven other Finnish titles screening at the moment (including Aki Kaurismäki’s Lights in the Dusk), and ten more to open until the end of the year, domestic admissions in 2006 might well break the 1999 record of 1.8m (and 25% of the domestic market share) according to Ahokas.