By Wendy Mitchell
During the “reaching audiences” Scandinavian Films webinar on June 24, experts from across the Nordic countries shared lessons safely reopening and what they expect for the future.
Denmark
Ditte Daubjerg Christensen, Managing Director of Aarhus’ seven-screen arthouse cinema Øst for Paradis, said her cinema re-opened four weeks ago, after being shut for nearly three months. She said the Danish audience “is feeling quite confident and feeling it's okay it's safe to return [to cinemas].” The Danish government has also supported the exhibition sector.
“We opened with a mix of new and old titles, and the safety and distancing restrictions.” For most small titles, the ticket sales have been healthy; the one title that feels like it could have sold twice as many tickets is Little Women by Greta Gerwig (newly released in Denmark). “That was proof to us that when the right film is there, the audiences are not afraid to come.”
As a distributor, Øst for Paradis experimented with its first VOD-led launch, on the Blockbuster platform, for German film Aren't You Happy. “We took the opportunity to try something we’ve never done before…and we got a lot of good reactions.” But she said theatrical would be the usual way forward for the company in the future.
Even during lockdown, they’ve been encouraged to see more than 300 loyal customers signing up to be one of the “Angels of Paradis” supporting the cinema’s activities and projects through a donation of about 65 Euros each.
Finland
Mika Siltala, CEO of exhibitor Cinema Mondo, was in a good mood as the day of the webinar, June 24, was the day that more Finnish cinemas could reopen in a more significant way (a handful of cinemas had started reopening in early June).
Changes at the cinemas include updating their ticketing kiosks to make sure tickets sold have empty seats round them, and installing plastic screens at box office like other retailers.
As in other territories, local films are the main draw for audiences now in the absence of Hollywood films. He has also started screening the Japanese animation Weathering with You, which Siltala says “looks like it has strong legs.” Mostly he is working with slightly older films but they will open their popular outdoor cinema with Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Saudi-set drama The Perfect Candidate; audience appetite is high, and the outdoor screenings sold out in just a few days. Overall, as things are reopening, “tickets are moving,” he says, although perhaps might be hampered slightly by gorgeous sunny weather. Overall, “in this situation Finland is not looking bad at all,” Siltala added.
Even if the studios keep delaying the launches of Mulan and Tenet, his more arthouse programming will offer alternatives. “We try to cover the corners that the studios are not covering.”
Iceland
Some multiplexes have reopened in Iceland with local comedy The Last Fishing Trip has been a big hit during this time, some cinemas remain closed especially because of a lack of big new films to screen. Iceland’s only arthouse cinema, Bio Paradis in Reykjavik, finds itself in an unusual situation of being closed not just because of the pandemic, but because of a real estate negotiation ongoing. Hrönn Sveinsdóttir, Managing Director, Bio Paradis, revealed the good news that the real estate contract is likely to be newly signed this week, but the cinema will remain closed this summer for renovations.
Bio Paradis had been at its busiest ever period in February and March 2020, but then shut on March 24 because of Icelandic government regulations on the size of gatherings.
While the cinema has been shuttered, Bio Paradis has stayed in touch with its “very loyal fan base” through social media or emails. And as a distributor, Bio Paradis has also been “constantly regularly reminding people of our huge catalogue of films that we have distributed in Iceland, by highlighting the VOD film of the week, reminding people of films they missed,” Sveinsdóttir added.
Norway
Truls Foss, Head of Programme Cinema, at Oslo-based VEGA Scene, noted that his cinema closed down on March 12 and reopened on May 7 “with quite strict restrictions,” including two seats separating patrons. He said it went well at the start and is growing as now as regulations about crowd sizes can grow. “I would say it's gone surprisingly well,” he said. He, too, has had to be creative with programming, working with smaller titles for instance, or planning special events like an interview with Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson. They have enjoyed having more direct contact with their audience on social media during this time.
As with all cinemas, there is a financial implication from COVID, so VEGA is thankful for the Norwegian government support for lost ticket income. “You have to think creatively, but without that funding, it would have been impossible I think,” Foss said.
Sweden
Peter Fornstam, CEO of Swedish cinema chain Svenska Bio, explained that Swedish cinemas never had a total lockdown, even during the pandemic Svenska could offer “Kino on Demand,” letting customers rent an entire cinema screen to bring from 8-50 friends, and choosing a film that was already on the server. It proved hugely popular. “We’ve done 2000 of those events across Sweden,” Fornstam said, noting that social media helped spread the word about the service.
The Swedish government is also helping the cinemas there with a help package to make up for some lost income. But Sweden, which is still battling the pandemic, still has a cap of 50 people maximum in a cinema and Fornstam is not sure when the government will likely increase that maximum.
Svenska has mostly been playing recent or older films but he hopes that changes next month. Fornstam said, “I think the whole industry is sitting here waiting for the Walt Disney Company to decide whether they're going to go with Mulan on July 26 or not (after the panel, Disney confirmed a new date of Aug 21). I think we need that kind of movie to bring the audience back; but I'm very encouraged by my colleagues in Denmark and Norway because it seems like once they reopened, people came back to the movies.”
Jonas Holmberg, artistic director of the Goteborg Film Festival, knows it’s too early to predict exactly what shape his January 2021 festival will take (they are currently planning a physical event). But he has been keeping in close contact with audiences through the festival’s VOD arm, Draken Film.
Draken was one of the first organistions to snap into action when lockdowns were starting – on March 18, they announced the VOD release of several films, in collaboration with Swedish distributors. For six months, half of the revenues from new Draken subscribers will go to independent Swedish arthouse cinemas, with each subscriber picking a specific cinema to support. (Several other international initiatives followed suit, including with Neon in the US supporting exhibitors.)
The titles were particularly strong –including A White, White Day and Portrait of A Lady on Fire-- as Holmberg noted, “We launched several new films that had just been released or we're about to be released in cinemas so it was very attractive programming during this discovery period. It was very successful and attracted a lot of people to sign up for for Draken and we have now three times the substitution base that we had before the pandemic.” So far, €60,000 has been raised for the 100 cinemas.
The Draken collaboration will change shape as things go “back to normal,” but Holmberg sees the benefits for a festival, digital platform, distributors and exhibitors to keep working together closely in years to come. “I think the big advantage for us in the long term is that we now have relationships to cinema and cinema owners all across Sweden. There are many people talking about the conflict between streaming and the cinema sector now, but I think especially for our market, the key is collaboration.”
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