Mamma Mia! has proven so successful in Icelandic cinemas that it is approaching Jar City (2006) by Baltasar Kormákur in popularity, which is currently the highest-earning film show in Icelandic cinemas since it was first registered in 1995.
So far, 95,866 tickets have been sold for Mamma Mia!, returning ISK 83.4 million (USD 930,000, EUR 659,000) in profits. Jar City returned ISK 90.6 million (USD 1 million, EUR 715,000) in box office sales, Morgunbladid reports.
Last weekend 4,600 people saw Mamma Mia! and only two other equally successful weekends are required for Mamma Mia! to surpass Jar City in popularity.
However, profits from box-office sales do not tell the whole story about a movie’s popularity.
Classic Icelandic comedy Med allt á hreinu (1982) is the most popular movie ever shown in Icelandic cinemas; literally half the nation, 125,000 people, went to see it. Before that, Grease (1978) was the most popular movie in Iceland.
