A new report from Dodona Research, Cinemagoing Scandinavia and the Baltic, dictates that box office in Scandinavia is set to top US$500 million by 2005. Box office growth of almost 40 per cent is forecast across the five Scandinavian territories and two Baltic States, Estonia and Latvia covered in the report. Dodona attributes this predicted growth to a combination of higher ticket prices and continuing steady investment in new cinemas, which it says will keep admissions on an upward path The consultancy says in Scandinavia traditionally many cinemas are government-owned or subsidised. It claims that in general this has led to less investment in cinemas than in many other countries, but that the situation is now changing. The report notes that Norway, in particular, is a 'ripe opportunity' as municipalities privatise cinemas and open up the market to private exhibitors. So far, Scandinavian exhibitors have invested cautiously in new cinemas but this will be to their benefit in the long-term, says Katharine Couling, author of the report: Steady development means the market is less likely to suffer the same over-building as has occurred in parts of Europe and the United States. Dodona says it is unlikely, however, that any of these developments will challenge Iceland's position as one of the world's leading cinema-going nations. In 2000, Iceland's 280,000 inhabitants were estimated to have visited the cinema 5.5 times each.