"Iron Man 3" Box Office Record Beat by Norway's Stop Motion Film "Solan and Ludvig"

First of all, I didn't find write the following article, Ramin Zahed for Animation Magazine.

he stop-motion animated feature Solan and Ludvig: Christmas in Pinchcliffe has set a new box office record in Norway. According to the folks at Twitch.com, the movie has posted the second best opening weekend in a decade, with 174,000 tickets sold, exceeding 2013′s previous top openerIron Man 3, which debuted with 99,000 tickets sales.

The 72-minute movie (original title Solan og Ludvig – Jul i Flåklypa) is directed by Rasmus A. Sivertsen. A Maipo Film production, exec produced by Synnøve Hørsdal and produced by Cornelia Boysen, the film follows the lead characters Solan the Hedgehog and Ludvig the Mapgie as they try to save their town from the evil plans of Plosen, who has stolen Reodor the inventor’s powerful snowmaker.

Sivertsen’s movie features the popular characters based on the works of Kjell Aukrust, whose last movie was the 1975 feature adaptation Pinchcliffe Grand Prix. That movie has sold 5.5 million tickets to date, which is very impressive in a country with a population of 4.9 million.

I didn't know that this film existed. I never heard it talked about on Twitter or an animation news website. Also am utterly stunned by this number, 174,000 tickets sold? That incredible! Iron Man 3 is a franchise, not a stand alone original movie. And second, it's a 72 minute Stop Motion feature film, it has almost been proven in the past that you can barely make back the money you spend on making the film. Let alone break a record. I hope the success of Solan and Ludvig helps studios start to believe in Stop Motion features again.

Trailer: http://youtu.be/lhFKBmE99j8

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