On Wednesday, dismal attendance figures for Swedish films were presented. According to the Agency for Cultural Analysis, the number of cinema visits to Swedish films in 2025 fell to around 1.1 million. That is a halving since the 2.3 million visits in 2024, when "The Last Journey" alone attracted over 400,000 to cinemas.
Now voices in the film industry hope that the autumn wave of Swedish film comedies can attract visitors back to the cinemas. The premieres include everything from pure comedies such as "Flaggan" and "Hösten med Göran" to humorous genre mixes such as "Resan till Piemonte" or "Arne goes to space". Peter Fornstam, CEO of the cinema chain Svenska bio, has for a long time been a clear advocate for more broad Swedish films. He sees a bright film harvest ahead of him.
- This is something that the audience and the industry have been asking for. We in the cinema industry have experienced that the demand for drama has not been that great, but that there has been a lot of drama. So we are very much looking forward to the coming of broad and good Swedish film.
Peter Fornstam believes that one reason is that it has become easier to get funding from the Film Institute for wide films. He gets the support of producer Lena Rehnberg, who is behind "Autumn with Göran". It is a sequel to the 2009 audience success "Summer with Göran", which attracted over half a million Swedes to the cinemas.
- People love to laugh and good comedies tend to attract audiences. With the new management, the Swedish Film Institute has been more inclined to support comedies, which is a big reason why the number of titles is increasing. "The summer with Göran" was not supported - at that time it was bad culture to make a comedy, moreover with two TV comedians in the lead roles. But for "Autumn with Göran" we got money.
Can you count on the comedies now leading to audience success?
- No, you absolutely cannot do that. It depends on how fun they are. If you are a resourceful Englishman, perhaps humor is easy, but for us Swedes who have Bergman in our chests, comedy is the hardest thing to do. And you get a receipt directly from the audience: do they laugh or don't they laugh?
A difficulty when so many comedies are launched at the same time can be finding a place for them in the cinema repertoire. Peter Fornstam says that autumn tends to be a particularly busy period for film launches.
- There is always a risk of cannibalization when a lot comes in the autumn and is crowded onto the same surface. There is a risk that the audience will not have the time and means to see all the films if they come too close together. At the same time, we know that when there are films that the audience requests, they usually find an opportunity to see them.
Not all of this fall's comedies were financed with money from the Swedish Film Institute. Outside the system is Netflix, which in the autumn is launching three Swedish comedy films on its streaming service. In addition, there are independently produced comedies, such as "We are Metal Dragon" and "Drama kings".
Film critic Caroline Hainer recently saw "We are Metal Dragon" in a review in Göteborgs-Posten. She says that she still appreciates the approach of making a Swedish indie comedy, as a contrast to safe Christmas premieres such as "Jönssonligan & Wall Enberg" or "Autumn with Göran". She believes that Swedish comedy is generally bad at renewing itself.
- These are safe cards with the same Swedish comedy elite who are in many of the films. It's Robert Gustafsson, Kjell Bergqvist and the gang. It is a symptom of how Swedish film is doing that we invest in well-proven, uncontroversial and familiar, she says.
What do you think of the quality of Swedish comedies?
- In general, we are not very good at comedy in Sweden, we are not very funny. A problem with Swedish comedy is that we come from a tradition of spex, outdoor games and bush games. We're not that good at genres like political, experimental or edgy humor.
