Locally-produced family films are enjoying a strong run at the Nordic box-office, with home-grown films proving more than a match for US product.

Hayflower And Quiltshoe (Heinähattu ja Vilttitossu) (pictured) had the biggest opening for a family feature in Finland this year with a weekend gross of Euros 224,453 and an impressive 34,713 admissions from 37 prints. The result far outperformed the openings US family titles: Lilo & Stitch 19,210 (on 46 prints), Monsters Inc. 18,925 (on 49 prints), Ice Age 16,229 (on 43 prints) and Stuart Little 2 15,099 (on 47 prints).

Newcomer Kaisa Rastimo's film, which is based on a series of popular books for children, is produced by Marko Rauhala's Kinotaurus Oy and released by Nordic major SF's Finnish subsidiary FS Film Oy.

Another Finnish film still performing impressively is Hannu Tuomainen's youth drama One-way Ticket to Mombasa (Menolippu Mombasaan), which is still holding on to a 5th place with a gross to date of Euros 815,413 since it's September 6 release, outperforming Signs among others. It was produced by Cinemaker Oy and released by Columbia Tristar/Egmont.

In Denmark, My Sister's Kids In The Snow continued it's strong opening performance with the third biggest second weekend ever and the highest local 10 day admission total with 346,260 from 84 prints. This makes it a bigger hit than even 2001's chart-topper Anja And Viktor which had 329,687 admissions in its first 10 days, but which still holds the record for the biggest opening.

Distributor Sandrew Metronome also had it's best ever art-house release this week with Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Her, which grossed $175,200 (DKR 1,331,890) and 23,986 admissions on just 10 prints. In Finland, Talk To Her also secured a good 7th spot with 11,266 admissions on five prints.