Press release from Yellow Bird
The first film in the Swedish Millennium trilogy, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, has grossed $ 103 million* at the box office worldwide making it one of the most successful European non-English speaking films of all time.
“This is beyond what we ever expected. For a film shot in a language spoken by merely nine million people, this kind of success is absolutely remarkable.” said Mikael Wallén, President of the production company Yellow Bird, part of the Zodiak Entertainment Group.
During the 2000s only five other non-English European films have grossed above $100 million. All of them are French and include Amélie ($174 million) and the recent hit Welcome to the Sticks ($245 million)*.
Outside Scandinavia, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (aka Men Who Hate Women) has been particularly successful in Spain ($14 million), France ($10 million) and the US ($8.7 million). The film is yet to be released in several major markets such as Russia and Mexico.
David Frank, CEO of Zodiak Entertainment, which also handles international sales of the trilogy said, “The Millennium trilogy is currently one of our most important assets. Around 50 territories have bought the first film and already some 30 countries have picked up the second and third.”
The second film in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire, opens in the US and the UK on July 2 and August 27 respectively. The final part, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, will also get US and UK releases during the autumn. Taken together, the three films have so far grossed around $173 million worldwide.
Swedish company Yellow Bird has produced the trilogy, based on Stieg Larsson’s immensely popular books and together with broadcasters SVT and ZDF, as well as the distributor Nordisk Film. The Zodiak Entertainment group consists of more than 40 production companies in 18 territories and boasts a global sales distribution network based in London and Paris.
Yellow Bird is currently developing several new films based on Scandinavian bestsellers. The shooting of a Norwegian feature film adaptation of Jo Nesbö’s thriller novel Headhunters will begin in September, starring Aksel Hennie. The film will be produced together with Friland. In Sweden, the company is developing a series of six films based on Liza Marklund’s books featuring crime reporter Annika Bengtzon. Shooting is expected to start early next year.
*Box Office Mojo reports a total worldwide gross for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo of $100,385,404. This figure however excludes box office in Canada of around $2.6 million. Gross figures for Amelie and Welcome to the Sticks are taken from Box Office Mojo. The foreign figures included therein do not necessarily add up to the foreign totals.