Sweden Box Office 2021

Box office sales for Swedish film continued to wane in 2021. For most of the year, cinema attendance was severely limited by audience restrictions but increased competition came from previously postponed big-budget international films. The year ended with an overall market share for Swedish film of 12.6%, on a par with 2019 but half of that in 2020 when competition from US blockbusters was significantly lower.

However, the trend for children’s movies to outperform other domestic content continues with four of the top five Swedish films being for younger audiences. The exception to this is Erik Poppe’s adaptation of The Emigrants, based on the novels by Vilhem Moberg, about a family who embark on a long and dangerous journey to America during the 1850s in the hope of a better life for their children.

Chief Analyst for the Swedish Film Institute, Josefin Schröder, said: “Digital development intensified further and more films than ever before premiered digitally in 2021. Digital services remained the primary means of watching movies but its strong growth has slowed down and there are signs that the market for streaming services has now entered a more mature phase.”

“There has been both change and decline in Swedish cinema. What its recovery will look like and what the film market will look like or how it will develop in the future, however, remains unclear. The coming years will probably mean major changes for both individual players and the market as a whole.”