Nordic distributors on pan-Nordic hits, the need to work closer with exhibitors

The panel ‘Theatrical Distribution in the Nordics’ held last Friday in Helsinki as part of the industry showcase Finnish Film Affair, was attended by SF Studios’ Yaba Holst, Scandinavian Film Distribution’s Michael Fleischer, and Folkets Bio’s Rose-Marie Strand, with Aurora Studios’ CEO Petri Kemppinen serving as moderator.

Explaining why Scandinavian Film Distribution (SFD) was launched in 2020, Fleischer said he and his partners Kim Magnusson and Christian Bévort saw a gap on the market in 2018-19, an opportunity to challenge the existing SF Studios and Nordisk Film duopoly and to build on local films’ popularity in the Nordics and political support to film - except in Sweden he noted.

After raising DKK 100 million (€13.5m) through private coin, the ‘new kid’ in the Nordics, opened for business March 9, 2020, just as Covid-19 was starting to paralyse the world. “We weren’t that scared, with no financial risk yet as we couldn’t spend anything, which was good!” quipped Fleischer, recalling the earlier days of SFD.

With an initial plan to go to market and invest in 100 titles over eight years, via MGs and/or equity, SFD is now active in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The company’s strategy is to release around 20 new films per year across the region, with decisions taken on a local level by country managers [Christina Müller in Denmark, Jojo Uimonen in Finland, Jarle Namtvedt in Norway, Anna Jandler in Sweden].

So far, the company has invested between €50,000 and €1.8 million in film projects; its portfolio includes 21 films under contract and in production, and a handful of films have now been released.

“We are now where we were supposed to be nine months ago, although we’ve had to delay some titles and are dealing with a bottleneck situation this autumn,” said the company’s CEO.

Regarding the theatrical market post-Covid, Fleischer said US fare has been dominating the market this year, and local blockbusters are needed to bolster the national market shares. But he felt upbeat, eagerly waiting notably for the SFD release of the major Norwegian war movie War Sailor September 23. “There is a positive atmosphere now, including in Denmark, Norway and Finland, and we all have to do something about Sweden” he observed.

All panellists agreed that the largest Nordic territory continues to be what Kemppinen called “the troubled child”, with homegrown titles in particular, struggling to find an audience.

According to figures compiled by the CEO of the Finnish distribution group Aurora Studios, before Covid, local films were strong in Norway and above the European level in Denmark and Finland, but underperformed in Sweden. And as reminded by Strand, during the pandemic, all Nordic territories - but Sweden -reinforced their national market-share, building on the shortage of US fare.

On a pan-Nordic level, Sweden is also the toughest territory for Nordic films that normally secure about 1.5-2.5% of admissions in neighbouring territories according to Kemppinen’s data.

“We still struggle to predict what films will attract people in Swedish cinemas,” said Strand, whose company Folkets Bio will turn 50 in 2023.

Discussing her company’s profile and DNA, the veteran Swedish distributor reminded the FFA audience that Folkets Bio releases around 25 features a year - 3-6 titles for small kids, 2-3 family films and 14-20 arthouse and documentary films. The group also controls 18 cinemas in 15 Swedish cites.

Looking at recent hits, Strand cited Juho Kuosmanen’s Cannes Grand Prize winner Compartment No6, which sold 16,155 tickets and played for around 20 weeks in Sweden. Elsewhere in the Nordics, Compartment No6 sold 22,867 tickets in Norway via Mer Filmdistribusjon, and 150,877 tickets in its home territory Finland via B-Plan.

“The Swedish audience chose a film set mostly on a train, with not very nice people speaking in Russian, which was interesting! said the amused Strand. “Dramas don’t seem to work anymore in Sweden. You need a director telling something in a totally new way. We will see how Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness [due for national release October 7] will fare,” she said.

For Strand, films with legs are fewer on the Swedish market and distributors have to be more creative with their marketing and PR strategies, and collaborate better with cinemas. “Laziness is not an option when you run a distribution company,” she noted.

Exhibitors for their part could “offer something more than just a film” and perhaps cut down the number of titles programmed in each cinema to create more visibility on each film, she suggests.

Citing recent Nordic hits, Strand said the Finnish film - Somali-spoken The Gravedigger’s Wife by Khadar Ayderus Ahmed was released in 49 screens and ended up with 5,296 admissions, which was ‘pretty good’. “We took ads, did a lot with little money. We had to rely on local cinema owners who had their Somali contacts,” she said.

Another film that performed well across the Nordics, was Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World which sold over 260,000 tickets in Norway via SF Norge, over 100,000 in Denmark via Camera Film (with figures boosted by Biografklub Danmark), 35,000 in Sweden via TriArt and around 17,000 in Finland, via Cinemanse.

Holst who had been involved in the co-financing with Oslo Pictures producers, and underlined Trier’s long relationship with SF Studios, said “The Worst Person in the World was ‘an expensive film’, and rights were tightly negotiated in pre-sales. She felt it was a good solution for the film to end up with specialised arthouse distributors in Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

SF Studios’ Head of Nordic Acquisition also gave a brief outline of the Scandinavian major’s pan-Nordic release strategy for Triangle of Sadness.

The Palme d’or winner opened in Denmark September 22, and in Finland September 23. It will then launch in France September 28, October 7 in Sweden and the US, and October 14 in Norway.

“Our core business is popcorn movies, but we were keen to have a commercial arthouse film, and I have a long-time personal relationship with Ruben, since his film Play”, explained Holst. “Ruben has created a brand for himself, and to get him on board, I had to show we [at SF Studios] would do something special with the Triangle of Sadness release.”

SF Studios decided to let their Danish office take charge of the campaign, including the artwork, in collaboration with SF’s other local outposts.

Regarding anticipated figures, Holst said she reckons the film will ended up at around 200,000 admissions in Sweden, 20,000-30,000 in Finland, 30,000-40,000 in Norway and around 80,000 in Denmark.

Holst underscored Östlund ‘s strong personal support during the pre-launch campaign, which should translate in bums on seats. “Ruben goes to each cinema and tours and tours, with his film, wooing audiences. “Today, you need to create an event around a film’s theatrical release,” she insisted.

“Yes we all need to get closer to cinemas, including producers,” added Fleischer.

Meanwhile Holst came up with the idea to open one cinema in each Nordic country, fully-dedicated to Nordic film programming. “We could have one state-supported cinema in each Nordic territory, showing old and new Nordic films.”

Anything curated is good,” agreed Strand.

On the topic of film exploitation on other platforms, Host said SF Studios has a first window output deal with Netflix on very specific films, replacing an earlier deal with C More. “Film consumption is changing a lot, and windows are shrinking. We need to stay open and collaborate with all partners and platforms, on a film by film basis," she said. Some local films [produced or co-produced by SF Studios] go straight to VOD, but "at the end of the day, people should be able to watch films where they want and we - at SF Studios, have to make sure producers get revenues back", Holst added