More local, more risky, more studio-like: How Norwegian film distributors adapted their strategies to the streaming age

Abstract

Foreign movies, especially on DVD, were a large part of the revenue stream for Norwegian film distribution companies before 2013. This revenue was also relatively predictable compared to the high risk of investing in Norwegian movies. However, the rise of Netflix and other global subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) services not only brought a sudden loss of DVD income, it also reduced access to foreign movies and increased the relative value of the high-risk local movies. This article uses quantitative data on films in Norwegian cinemas from 2008 to 2019 and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders performed in 2019 and 2020 to examine how Norwegian distributors responded to this change. It finds that Norwegian distributors shifted towards a strategy where they are increasingly first-run distributors for local movies at the expense of being sub-distributors for foreign movies. The major local distributors have also become increasingly vertically integrated.