The number of Icelanders going to the cinema dropped substantially in 2012, new figures have shown. Last year saw admissions in the North Atlantic country decrease by 4.3 per cent from the year prior, as reported by Screendaily.com, despite the fact that revenues climbed by 1.2 per cent during the same period.
The figures come via the Icelandic Film Centre, whose figures also revealed that Black’s Game from local filmmaker Óskar Thór Axelsson was the most popular Icelandic feature in 2012 with nearly 63,783 admissions. Similarly, The Deep from Baltasar Kórmakur gained 49,698 admissions last year, and the two domestic films combined to take more than 10 per cent of the annual box office total for the year.
Among international titles, the latest James Bond thriller Skyfall saw the best performance at Iceland’s cinemas with just under 80,000 admissions. Meanwhile, French feature Intouchables came in second with 64,735 admissions whilst The Dark Knight Rises came in third place at 63,682 admissions.
Project coordinator T Tjorvi Thorsson said on behalf of the Icelandic Film Centre that although 2012 saw fewer admissions than 2011 that gross box office receipts grew by 2.7 per cent to more than ISK 1.03 billion (EUR 6.15 billion).