Icelandic moviegoers are marching to Georg Bjarnfredarson's beat.

In spite of James Cameron’s Avatar, Ragnar Bragason’s Mr. Bjarnfredarson is set to become the biggest opener of any film in Iceland’s box office history, as distributor Samfilm projects the three-day gross to cross Ikr. 20 million (€110.000), with around 17.500 admissions. Mr. Bjarnfredarson opened December 26th on 17 out of 33 screens.

The biggest opener of Icelandic films so far is Baltasar Kormákur’s Jar City (2006), which received 16.000* 13.956 admissions during its first three days, and went on to become the most popular Icelandic film since official records began in 1995, with over 84.000 admissions (around 27% of the total population).

* Correction Dec. 29 2009: The strikethrough number is based on information given to industry website Land & synir in 2006. It has now been corrected.