Press release17
December 2004
2004 marks another
successful year for Danish cinemas. Some 12.5 million tickets will be sold
- approximately 3.1 million of these for Danish films.
According to an estimate
by the Danish Film Institute, numbers will be on a par with those of the
last three years. Thus, the trend among the film-going public seems clear.
Cinema as entertainment is increasingly popular, and Danish filmgoers
choose indigenous films to a higher degree than earlier. By comparison, in
the 1990s the average annual box office was 9.9 million admissions, of
which Danish films accounted for 1.8 million.
In 2003, when 24 Danish
films were released, the average number of tickets sold for each film was
132,000, a much higher figure than that for American films which had an
average of 74,000 per film. In 2004, 18 Danish films in all will be
released giving an average of 172,000 tickets sold for each film.
"King's Game" by Nicolai Arcel tops the chart of Danish
films, with more than half a million tickets sold. Coming in at a close
second is "My Sister's Kids in Egypt" (450.000 tickets), followed by
"Brothers" (430,000). "Terkel in Trouble", a groundbreaking animated film
by Stefan Fjeldmark, Thorbjørn Christoffersen, and Kresten Vestbjerg
Andersen, holds fourth place with 390.000 tickets.
6 Danish films were
released in the first half year of 2004, fewer releases than normal, but
these films brought in more than a million tickets. This is largely
due to the success of films like "In Your Hands", "Terkel in Trouble" and
"Villa Paranoia".
On the other hand, the
last six months of 2004 have seen releases of no less than 12 indigenous
films, all of which have dominated the market since the end of August.
Thus, in the month of October, 60% of all admissions were for Danish
films.
This year's releases
demonstrated substantial breadth: Of a total of 18 feature films, no less
than 5 were children and youth films, spanning from films for the very
young over to those aimed at a teen audience. Danish filmgoers were swept
away by 3-D animation feature "Terkel in Trouble" and the political
thriller "King's Game", genres normally associated with the American
films. But 2004 also saw artistic and challenging filmmaking for the film
with narrow appeal: The critics praised "Silk Road"; and "Aftermath"
became an international festival success.
Three Danish films are
yet to be released in 2004. Charlotte Sachs Bostrup's epic film, "Lost
Generation", based on Christian Kampmann's 4-volume novel, opens today,
Friday 17 December. Two films open on 25 December: Families will most
likely be drawn to Peter Flinth's adaptation of Bjarne Reuter's "The
Fakir", and young people and adults can look forward to Nicolas Winding
Refn's return to the raw underbelly of Copenhagen in "Pusher
II".
Current figures Danish
filmswww.dfi.dk/sitemod/moduler/generelle_moduler/fb/index.asp?pid=13800
Danish cinema admissions
1980-2003www.dfi.dk/sitemod/moduler/generelle_moduler/fb/index.asp?pid=4700
Releases 2005www.dfi.dk/sitemod/moduler/generelle_moduler/fb/index.asp?pid=220
For further
information
Danish Film
InstituteMaja Dyekjær Giese, +45 3374 3439 / +45 4050 4750majag@dfi.dk