Local Titles Cushion Nordic Box Office Plunge in 2020
Annika Pham, provided by
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Due to COVID-19 cinema lockdowns or restrictions, box office in the Nordic region plummeted in 2020 year-on-year by 64% in Sweden, 57.6% in Iceland, 57% in Norway, 54% in Finland, and 47% in Denmark.
The dearth of new U.S .tentpoles, combined with strong domestic titles such as “Another Round,” allowed homegrown movies to punch all-time record market shares in Denmark (50.4%), Finland (41.1%) and Norway (35.6%).
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Denmark: The Year of ‘Another Round’
Thomas Vinterberg’s Oscar contender and 2020 champion “Another Round” figured among a handful of national titles that saved the Danish cinema year and mitigated COVID-19’s impact on cinemagoing.
Against all odds, 2020 turned out to be a great year for Danish films
Another Round and
Riders of Justice by Anders Thomas Jensen
It has undoubtedly been a tough year for European cinema. However, there has been some good news for Danish films. Despite the ongoing health crisis, the Nordic country’s box office recorded an historic 50.4% market share for local films, according to figures published by the Danish Film Institute.
In detail,
Anders Thomas Jensen’s
film profile] (459,773 admissions) were the biggest hits of 2020. On the whole, last year saw a 46% decline in admissions (from 13.2 million in 2019 down to 7.2 million), and Danish cinemas had to shut down in spring for three months and once again in December. Nevertheless, ticket sales for domestic titles recorded a slight increase – 3.6 million in 2020, about 200,000 more than in 2019. Other successful Danish titles included