Zodiak Entertainment Distribution today announces that the multi-award winning film Men Who Hate Women (aka The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), the first film in the Millennium trilogy, sold to nine further territories ahead of the Berlin Film Festival.

Edko Films in Hong Kong, Encore Films in Singapore, Filmware in Taiwan, Conquest Films in Brazil, Independenta Films in Romania, AS Tallinfilm in Estonia and Ablo in Hungary and the Czech and Slovak Republics, have each acquired local distribution rights to the runaway international success. 

Men Who Hate Women has now sold to more than 50 countries and grossed a total of €61m (US$84m). 

In total, the Millennium trilogy has taken in excess of €110m at the worldwide box office, a figure set to continue to rise with the films about to launch in several key territories in the first quarter 2010. Lumiere in Benelux, Frenetic in Switzerland and Alliance in Canada, have signed deals for the complete trilogy, joining Italy, Spain, Belgium and Germany.

In its opening week (release date: 5 Feb 2010), Millennium 2 (The Girl who Played with Fire) has grossed an impressive €1,019,000 in Germany, reinstating the recent success of the second opus in Benelux and Canada

Millennium is produced by Yellow Bird (a Zodiak Entertainment company) a Sweden-based production company which acquired the rights to adapt the complete Stieg Larsson book trilogy before it was published. Worldwide distribution is handled by Zodiak Entertainment Distribution.

Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet, Scripted Sales Director at Zodiak Entertainment Distribution said “We are extremely proud to include the staggeringly successful Millennium trilogy among our scripted portfolio. We are delighted to be part of its incredible international success”

Marco Cordeddu, Managing Director of Zodiak Entertainment Distribution, adds, “The expansion of Zodiak Entertainment’s international production capability means our wide range of programming across all genres, including unscripted shows such as Fort Boyard and The Guillotine, continues to appeal to broadcasters around the world.”

For more information, please contact:

Press contacts:

Laura Saldanha – The Lippin Group on behalf of Zodiak Entertainment
T: 0044 203 008 5407
laura@lippingroup.com

Commercial contact
Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet – Scripted Sales Director, Zodiak Entertainment
T: 0033 153 10 91 31
emmanuelle.bouilhaguet@zodiakentertainment.com

Notes to editors

A full list of sales of the Millennium trilogy is available on request.

Following four nominations at the Guldbagge Awards in Sweden earlier this month, Men Who Hate Women took home the prizes for best feature, the audience award for best feature and best leading actress. The film was also awarded the 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival’s (PSIFF) audience award for best narrative feature earlier this month.
 
Yellow Bird was founded in 2003 and is currently one of Scandinavia’s biggest companies in the development and production of drama for TV and cinema. A German subsidiary has also been established in Munich.

Yellow Bird focuses primarily on international co-productions based on successful books or on characters from such books. Apart from the adaptation of the Millennium trilogy, Yellow Bird has also been behind the Swedish and English Wallander series (the latter together with UK company Left Bank Pictures).
www.yellowbird.se

Zodiak Entertainment is a leading creator, producer and distributor of multi-genre content for TV, cinema, digital and mobile. Part of the De Agostini Group, Zodiak Entertainment has more than 30 production companies in 18 territories and boasts an international distribution network based in London and Paris.

For further information please go to www.zodiakentertainment.com.