11/01/2011

Released by Nordisk Film two weeks before the end of 2010, Casper Christensen’s comedy Clown: The Movie (Zentropa) became the biggest Danish film of the year and helped boost the market share of local films to 22.2%.

In only 18 days, the comedy based on the popular TV series of the same name sold over 481,000 tickets, pushing family franchise film Father of Four – In Japanese Mode (430,417 admissions), which had dominated the domestic top ten charts since February, to second place. Clown has now sold a record 652,000 admissions in a month and is among the five most successful Danish title of the last 20 years.

Two other Zentropa films were among the domestic ten top of 2010: Susanne Bier’s In a Better World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (third biggest local film with 413,253 admissions) and Kenneth Kainz’s comedy Therapy (146,073). Janus Metz’s documentary Armadillo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janus Metz, director of Arm…
film profile] was a surprise hit with 118,168 admissions.

Based on preliminary figures from the Danish Film Institute, the 2.9 million admissions and 22.2% market share for local films was an improvement on 2009’s 17% slice of the market, but it remains lower than the 28% average that Danish films enjoyed between 2000 and 2008.

With nearly 13 million tickets sold in 2010, overall cinema attendance remained strong, yet was 6% lower than in 2009 and down 3.5% on 2008. “The 2010 results are of course the lowest of the last three years, but still, it was a positive year for the Danish film industry, which has good reason to be satisfied,” said Michael Fleischer, managing director of Filmcompagniet/SF in Denmark and chairman of the Danish Film Distributors’ Association FAFID.

The top-grossing film of the year was Avatar, which opened in 2009 and still sold 841,697 tickets in 2010. A handful of animated and/or 3D films pushed admissions upwards, such as Alice in Wonderland, Shrek Forever After, Toy Story 3 and local title Olsen Gang Gets Polished [+see also:
trailer
film profile], produced by Nordisk Film. Other strong performers were Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 [+see also:
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film profile] (536,068 admissions) and Inception (516,532).

The official 2010 attendance figures will be published by Danmarks Statistik in March.