Movies|The Finnish action film is now the most widely distributed work in Nordic film history.
Content 2 premiered in 28 countries over the weekend. In North America, the world’s largest film market, it became the sixth most watched film of the weekend with a box office revenue of 2.3 million euros, according to Deadline, which follows Hollywood’s entertainment business.
Jalmari Helanderin directed and written by and Petri Jokiranta produced action film received wider distribution in the United States than any Nordic film before it. Content 2 was shown on more than 2,200 screens. The distributor is the Hollywood studio Sony, which also participated in the financing of the film.
“The result was pretty much what Sony predicted,” says Jokiranta.
“It’s great that a Finnish film is in the top ten in the United States, that’s an achievement in itself.”
In Deadline’s forecast, ticket sales of at least 2.6 million euros were expected for the film, so the result is a little disappointing. However, the actual market is on the streaming side. That was told by Deadline’s editor Anthony D’Alessandro already on Friday.
“The film is a micro-budget project for Sony, aiming for success in post-distribution,” D’Alessandro wrote.
The overwhelming number one movie of the weekend was the premiere musical sequel Wicked: For Good. As expected, the spectacle received as much as 80 percent of all North American weekend viewers and collected 130 million euros.
”Wicked eats up air space from other films”, says Jokiranta.
“On the other hand, its audience is completely different.”
First Content was in the spring of 2023 for three weeks among the ten most watched films in US cinemas.
There were half as many screens, but ticket sales totaled three million euros during the opening weekend. Ykkönen’s worldwide cinema turnover was a good 13 million euros, of which more than half came from the United States and Canada.
Content has been extremely successful in home distribution. When the film entered Hulu, the third largest paid streaming service in the United States, in the fall of 2025, it remained among the top ten most watched films in a wide selection for almost two weeks. Currently, the first part is the fourth most watched movie on Tub, the most popular free, or advertising-supported, movie streaming service in the United States.
In November, the first in the marketing wing of the sequel Content would be the number one movie on Netflix in Sweden and Norway for a few days. It has previously been the most watched film on Netflix in Germany and Great Britain, among others.
There is now another Nordic film on American screens, Joachim Trierin guided by Sentimental Valuewhich runs on about 150 screens. The Norwegian drama, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes and is expected to receive several Oscar nominations, has collected 1.5 million euros in three weeks.
Thursday next to Christmas, Thanksgiving is the most important family holiday in the United States, and movie visits are at their peak.
“Wednesday to Sunday is the Thanksgiving weekend, which is now a good set-up. There are a lot of gangs in traffic then,” says Jokiranta.
Sisu 2’s there are no other films of the same genre premiering as a competitor.
The spread was extensive elsewhere as well. In Britain, the film was shown on 276 screens. The premiere countries of the weekend included, among others, India, Germany, Spain and Australia. In most countries Sisu 2’s the name is Sisu: Road to Revenge or a direct translation of it, that is Content: The road to revenge. The critical reception in the United States was practically unanimously positive. Many reviews wonder how this was possible with a budget of 12 million euros.
“An avalanche of blood-spattered shenanigans turns into a misty popcorn delight,” painted the New York Times Brandon Yu.
of the Los Angeles Times Amy Nicholson called the film the most spectacular action adventure of the year and mentioned the President by Alexander Stubb having talked about the interior just the week before.
“This top-notch B-movie couldn’t ask for better branding,” Nicholson wrote.
Content 2 premiered in Finland on October 22. It has now received more than 117,000 viewers in its home country and was the most watched film in Finland for three weeks.
Domestic distribution has met expectations. According to the producer Jokiranta, the number of viewers has followed the attraction of the number one show brought to the big screen in January 2023 almost on a daily basis.
“It’s confusing that we’re in exactly the same numbers,” says Jokiranta.
“We hope that the visibility of the distribution and success in the rest of the world will bring a boost here as well. Even the first ticket sales picked up again when news from abroad started coming in.”
Content got 183,000 viewers in Finland. It was the third most viewed domestic film of the year and the seventh most viewed of all premiere films.
in Finland Sixes despite their American genre, are national films that play with history and still appeal to the audience of war films. Sisu 2’s in the Finnish poster, the main character Aatami Korpi poses in a semi-close-up with two Soviet-made weapons resembling Suomi submachine guns. The blankets are Jorma Tommilan facial appeal as well as weapons.
In the rest of the world, Sisut falls into the genre of the most violent action film and with its splatter-type exaggerated violence also attracts fans of harder horror films. The international poster is deliberately and cartoonishly overshooting: The raven stands with his gun on top of a hill formed by destroyed airplanes and motorcycles.
The reference point for Jokiranta in international distribution is the John Wick film series.
“If that audience points to this end of the year as an interesting action movie, there is a lot of potential.”
Correction 24.11. at 6:27 p.m.: Corrected incorrect information that in the Finnish poster the main character would pose with two Suomi submachine guns. The weapons resemble Suomi submachine guns, but are Soviet-made PPSh-41 submachine guns. In addition, the mention of Canada has been removed from the sentence about Thanksgiving, because Thanksgiving has already been celebrated there in October.