12/11/2015 - For the first time, 318,067 Norwegians watched films during a weekend, while Finland’s theatres are heading for their best result ever

Unfolding last week (Saturday 7 November), Norway’s National Cinema Day (see the news) registered a record number of 198,458 admissions for 2,319 screenings in 151 theatres – but it didn’t stop there: over the weekend, 318,067 Norwegians bought tickets to watch films, which has never happened before. The average weekend attendance this autumn has been 160,000.

Organised by Norwegian cinema association Film & Kino, the Cinema Day offered half-price tickets for regular performances, previews of new films and special events such as an all-night screening of New Zealand director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003).

“A local film beat them all – Norwegian director Arild Fröhlich’s second instalment in his Doctor Proctor franchise, based on Jo Nesbø’s novels, Doctor Proctor Bubble in the Bathtub [+see also:
trailer
film profile], with an audience exceeding 27,000, totalling close to 208,000,” said Birgitte Langballe, head of communications at Film & Kino.

Second was UK director Sam Mendes’ Spectre [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] (almost 20,000 admissions), while third was US-Russian director Genndy Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania 2. Agent 007 still has a grip on his followers – after two weeks on release, the Daniel Craig starrer has registered 393,144 Norwegian admissions (figure from 8 November). 

Meanwhile, the Finnish Film Foundation reported that Finnish films have for the first time since modern statistics began to be collected (1970) sold 2.385 million tickets since the beginning of the year – the previous record was 2.357 million in 2012. This is the fourth time in six years that they have reached the two-million mark, thanks to more releases (28) and a greater variety in the repertoire, according to the foundation.

The Finnish top performer is Taneli Mustonen’s The Reunion [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a remake of a Danish comedy (with 506,000 admissions), and there are still five local films on the cinemas’ 2015 schedule. Total attendance so far has been 7.2 million, with a local market share of over 30% currently.