As of February 1, 2016, Norway will have its own version of the Danish Biografklub offering members a selection of top quality first-run film titles each year for half the price of a normal cinema ticket.
The Norwegian ‘kinoklubb’ headed by Elisabeth Birnch, (pictured) will be run by the country’s leading film and cinema portal Filmweb, co-owned by Egmont Group, the Norwegian Distributors’ Association, Bergen Kino and Trondheim Kino. The concept is inspired by the 20 year-old Biografklub Danmark which boasts 200,000 members and contributes to around one million admissions each year. Besides cheaper cinema tickets, members have access to film premieres, on-going film guidance and discounted film-related items, from CDs to books for sale on the cinema club’s dedicated web shop.
Christian Berg, programmer at Nordisk Film Kino who sits on the selection committee of Kinoklubb says: “We see from Denmark’s example that membership is the only reason why people go more often to the movies”….” What is also clear is that despite the discount, individual films featured in Biografklub Denmark achieve a significant increase in earnings and that the films run on average two to three weeks longer in cinemas.”
The epic adventure film The Last King/Birkebeinerne directed by Nils Gaup will be the first of seven quality films that will make up the programme of Kinoklubb. Other titles include the Norwegian comedy Grand Hotel by Arild Fröhlich, the Cannes’ competition film Carol by Todd Haynes and Directors’ Fortnight’s A Perfect Day starring Benicio del Toro and Tim Robbins. Birnch said the final line up has not yet been finalised, but another Norwegian film will most likely be added to the list.
The 2015-2016 line up of Biografklub Danmark has three Danish titles in its main programme –Summer of 92’ by Kasper Barfoed (that has sold 316,938 tickets since its August 27 release), The Commune by Thomas Vinterberg (January 1, 2016) and The Day will Come by Jesper W. Nielsen starring Lars Mikkelsen and Sofie Gråbøl (April 21, 2016). Another three Nordic films are offered in Biografklubben’s ‘Plus Package’: Land of Mine by Martin Zandvliet (see our interview with the director), A Man Called Ove (May 26, 2016) and Virgin Mountain (July 7, 2016).