Danish Cinemas is currently re-negotiating the agreement with the Danish Distributors’ Association defining the hold-back period between theatrical and DVD-VOD windows.

While Danish directors Susanne Bier and Lars von Trier scooped this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Feature and European Film Award – for In a  Better World and Melancholia, respectively – and five Danish releases (against the annual average of three) has exceeded 300,000 admissions, the bottom of the Danish charts is unusually crowded.

Six local productions have sold less than 6,000 tickets, including Karla Bengtson’s Tigers & Tattoos (Tigre og tatoveringer/5,944), Thomas Staho’s Love Is in the Air (Magi i luften/2,983) [pictured], Michael Asmussen’s Something in the Air (Noget i luften/2,327), Christoffer Boe’s Beast (1,685), Rune Schjøtt’s Skyscraber (1,118), and the abysmal performance of Linda Wendel’s Miss Julie (Julie), which reached 155 – according to the Danish Film Institutes admission figures updated on Dec 5.

“Obviously the ’small’ domestic features are a millstone round the neck of the theatres. Still they try to live up to the cultural obligation of screening them to the audiences who paid for them through public film support,” explained head of the association of Danish Cinemas, Kim Pedersen. “But rather than be subsidised to do it we prefer promotional initiatives such as Cinema Club Danmark, which earlier this year registered 250,000 admissions for three ’difficult’ titles.”

Danish Cinemas is currently re-negotiating the agreement with the Danish Distributors’ Association defining the hold-back period between theatrical and DVD-VOD windows - the distributors want it reduced from the present four months for ’small’ local releases. ”We are open to discussions, but do not want to risk that through a shorter theatrical window, you win €5 on DVD-VOD while losing €10 in the cinemas,” Pedersen concluded.

Local productions on top of the 2011 charts are Martin Zandvliet’s A Funny Man (Dirch/483,178 admissions); Niels Nørlov’s The Reunion (Klassefesten/425,799); Claus Bjerre’s Family of Four – Back to Nature (Far til Fire – Tilbage til naturen/408,350); Rasmus Heide’s All for One (En for alle/378,514); Mikkel Nørgaard’s 2010 release of Clown: The  Movie (Klovn – The Movie/373,341 in 2011, to total 855,174).

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