Danish films in the dumper

After a banner year in 2013, crowds stayed away from homegrown films during the first part of 2014

The first half of 2014 has been something of a disaster for the Danish film industry. During the first seven months, the 13 Danish films released drew only 1,493,468 cinemagoers, for a 23.3 percent share of the domestic market share. In 2013, Danish films drew over 4 million into theatres for a market share of nearly 30 percent.

Only 4 films have delivered even satisfactory results.

' Klassefesten 2: Begravelsen', played to over 600,000 viewers, the family film ' Far til fire – Onkel Sofus vender tilbage', drew just shy of 300,000, while Pernille Fischer Christensen’s much hyped 'En du elsker' was seen by nearly 170,000 people. The film ' Kartellet' rounded out the list of films that brought people in with 127,000 tickets sold.

Sonia Suhl’s critically-acclaimed debut performance in the werewolf film 'Når dyrene drømmer' was seen by just 3,499 people.

Too arty
Kim Pedersen, head of the film association Danske Biografer said that the problem was with how the films were promoted.

“I think that it is mainly due to a poor launching of the films,” Petersen told Ekstra Bladet. “Too much focus was put on the fact that 'Når dyrene drømmer' and the western 'The Salvation' had been selected for the Cannes Film Festival. That brands them as art films in the minds of the public.”

Pedersen said that both films would have drawn bigger crowds if the public knew more about what type of film would be seeing.

Pedersen also wants the Danish Film (DFI) Institute to launch a website that focuses exclusively on Danish films.

“It should be a user-friendly, interactive website with trailers, interviews and much more”, he said.

READ MORE: Genocide film back in the hunt for an Oscar

The year’s biggest failure so far has been the Simon Staho film 'Miracle', which was seen by 742 people, even though it had Danish stars Ulrich Thomsen and Sonja Richter in its cast. The film received 8.6 million kroner in public money from DFI.

'Når dyrene drømmer', the Cannes-nominated werewolf film that drew 3,499 cinemagoers received over 10 million kroner from DFI.

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