Admissions downturn expected to change
by Annika Pham
Admissions in Norway during each of the first five months of 2007 were down with respect to the same period last year, dropping an average 12.8%, due predominantly to the shortage of blockbuster titles.
The sharpest drops in Norwegian admissions were in April (-17.9%) and January (-17.1%), although May also decreased by 14.8% with 3.9 million admissions against 4.6 million in 2006.
“This winter/spring hasn’t had any strong blockbuster, unlike last year, so figures are almost like those of 2005,” commented Lene Løken, head of Film & Kino. “However, I think this downturn is just temporary as we are going to have very good films over the summer. Later on, in the autumn, we are going to have strong local films as well so I hope that the end of the year will be more like 2006 (which had a total 12m admissions)”.
According to Filmweb Rapportserver, Norway’s top grossing film as of June 28 is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (492,414 admissions) but four local titles are also in the Top 10: at number two is the children’s franchise film The Junior Olsen Gang: The Secret of the Silvermine (284,540); in fifth, ninth and tenth place respectively are animated film Elias & the Royal Yacht (224,254), Eva Dahr’s romantic film Mars & Venus (129,719) and the other children’s series Svein & the Rat & the UFO Mystery (127,060).
US films dominate the rest of the Top 20, with the exception of the UK/US film Mr Bean’s Holiday [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (over 236,000 admissions). The first non-English, non-Scandinavian film in the Top 20 is Olivier Dahan’s La Vie en Rose [+see also:
trailer
film profile], ranked 16th with 84,269 admissions and distributed by Sandrew Metronome.
Upcoming local films that should score at the box office include Nils Gaup’s epic film The Kautokeino Rebellion (August 31, Sandrew Metronome), Peter Næss’ s comedy Gone with the Woman (which will open nationwide on September 7 after its world premiere at the Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund on August 18), the children’s film The Radio Pirates (September 14), Switch (previously known as Snowboarder, October 19) and Bent Hamer’s latest project, O’Horten [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (December 26).
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
