SoenkeWortmann's "fly on the wall" football documentary Deutschland. Ein Sommermaerchen hasbroken Germany's record for the most successful documentary release, which hadbeen held previously by another Kinowelt title, The March Of The Penguins, which hadposted 1.45m admissions.

Accordingto Kinowelt's head of press Martin Wieandt, the Little SharkEntertainment/WDR-WDR mediagroup production was expected to reach 1.55m admissionsby the end of business today.

Thedocumentary had already broken records as the strongest opening in Germany fora documentary and a Kinowelt release by selling just over 1m (including for the previews on Tuesdayand Wednesday). The film-makers accompanied the German national team duringthis year's World Cup.

Thisopening performance made Wortmann's film the fifth-strongest opening for aGerman film after Dreamship Surprise -Period 1 (2.16m), 7 Dwarfs(1.57m), Werner - Das Muss Kesseln!! (1.09m)and Perfume - The StoryOf A Murderer (1.04m) and posting a 1,500 per-screen average fromits 600 screens (which were increased to 670 on Thursday).

Thesuccess of Wortmann's film will doubtless propel the German cinema's market shareback over the 20% mark and closer to 2004's overall figure of 23.4%. Accordingto Nielsen EDI, German films had already registered a market share of 19.7% inthe first three quarters of 2006, with 18.4m admissions and box-office takingsof $130m (Euros 104.4m).

The thirdquarter, in particular, had been successful for German films with such releasesas Tom Tykwer's Perfume, SebastianNiemann's Hui Buh - Das Schlossgespenstand Marcus H. Rosenmueller's Wer FrueherStirbt, Ist Laenger Tot. The final quarter hasstarted well with Wortmann's documentary and will be followed in the comingweeks by the politically incorrect animation film Das Kleine Arschloch Und Der Alte Sack (Oct 12) and the 7 Dwarfs sequel 7 Zwerge - Der Wald Ist Nicht Genug (Oct26).

NielsenEDI's figures also noted that cinemas posted an 8% increase in admissions andbox-office turnover compared to the first nine months of 2005, with cinematakings climbing from $643m (Euros 514.42m) in 2005 to $703.9m (Euros 563.35)this year.

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