Danish director Niels Arden Oplev's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (aka Men Who Hate Women/Män som hatar kvinnor) is set to become the largest Scandinavian film success ever.

After its third weekendof release,had reached 1.26 million admissions in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. In Norway it opened only last Friday (March 13) selling 94,154 tickets over the weekend - this year's best result.

The first feature from Swedish author Stieg Larsson's Millennium thriller trilogy stars Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist.

'Traditionally Nordic films rarely travel successfully to the other Nordic countries. It took a Swedish Larsson and a Danish Oplev to break the vicious circle,' explained managing director Jan Lehmann, of Nordisk Film Distribution Denmark. 'During its third weekend its attendance here was 82,000 - more than a lot of films achieve on their entire run.'

Adding 13 copies to the initial 102-print release in Denmark, Lehmann said that the film performed better than any local picture at the opening, and second only to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix's $3m (DKK 18.1m) box-office receipts. Now it is 40,000 admissions up on Nordisk's so far biggest succes, Casino Royale, after the same period.

In Denmark, Lehmann reported of selling 562,569 tickets so far, 'but it has a much larger potential.' In Sweden, where Nordisk Film Distribution has now exceeded 600,000 spectators, 81,703 had booked or bought tickets for the SF Bio and Svenska Bio venues prior to the premiere. Co-producer Nordisk Film will release the film in Finland on March 27.

Internationally The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was presented at the European Film Market in Berlin, where Sweden's Zodiak Entertainment Distribution - Swedish producer Yellow Bird is part of Zodiak - also touted the Millennium six-part television series.

Yellow Bird made Oplev's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as a feature, but also as a 2x90mins TV film withthe second and third booksof the trilogy, The Girl Who Played with the Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden) and The Air Castle That Blew Up (Luftslottet som sprängdes), both directed by Sweden's Daniel Alfredson.

'After the first market screening in Berlin we closed deals for Spain, Poland and Switzerland,' said Yellow Bird CEO Mikael Wallen. 'The sales to Spain and Poland included the TV films and the feature, while the contract for Switzerland was only for the feature.'

Co-produced by Swedish public broadcaster, SVT, and Germany's ZDF Enterprises, thesix TV films will be broadcast by SVT, ZDF, DR-TV Denmark, TV2 Norway and MTV3 Finland during 2010. French distributor UGC will launch the feature on May 13.


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