14/10/2003

This year, Norwegian films have already attracted twice as many people as during the whole 2002, and attendance for local films this year should be the highest in more than 25 years according to new data just published by the Norwegian Film Fund.

Figures until the end of September show that 1,633,571 people went to see local films, almost as many as during the record year of 2001, when 1.8 million admissions were registered over the same period. This means that over the first three quarters of 2003, one in five tickets sold went for a Norwegian film.
With a 20.2% market share so far, domestic attendances are also three times as high as the average market-share for the 1990s estimated at around 7%, and only once since 1966 has the market-share for domestic titles passed the 20% mark.
The most popular titles so far are The Olsen Gang Jr Goes Under Water (323,512 admissions), Ulvesommer (244,278), Buddy (212,966) and the romantic comedy The Woman of My Life (“Kvinnen I mitt liv”) that has sold over 168,000 over three weeks. Alexander Eik’s debut film was still at second position at the local Top 20 last weekend, behind the awaited sequel to Elling: Mother’s Elling that sold 62,678 tickets over the weekend for a total of 70,753 for two weeks.

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