07/10/2008

Since the beginning of 2008, over one million Finns have watched a domestic movie, a level that was not reached last year until December, according to statistics published by the Finnish Film Foundation (FFF).

“With five more local premieres coming up, it is expected that last year’s audience figures of 1.3 million will be surpassed. At the moment, the local market share is over 20%,” the FFF announced in a statement.

As of the end of September, the top selling local title is Mari Rantasila’s family film Ricky Rapper (207,357 admissions), followed by Lauri Nurske’s romantic comedy Playing Solo [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (155,128 admissions, for a total of 186,998 when 2007 figures are included) and the new Kummeli franchise film produced by Solar Films, The Subtenant (over 132,000 admissions since mid-September). Dome Karukoski’s youth drama Home of the Dark Butterflies [+see also:
trailer
film profile], running for an Oscar and for the Nordic Council Film Prize, was seen by 112,663 Finns. All four titles were released by Nordisk Film.

The market share for Finnish films should get another major boost this Friday with the release of the animated, feature-length family title Niko and the Way to the Stars [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Kari Juusonen and Michael Hegner. Niko has already broken a couple of records as one of the most expensive Finnish film ever made (€6.1m budget) and fastest international seller to a record number of territories (over 100).

The film was produced by Anima Vitae and Cinemaker in Finland, in co-production with A.Film (Denmark), Magma Films (Ireland) and Ulysses (Germany). International sales are handled by Telepool (Germany). Niko will also be screened in October at the Cinekid Film Festival.