library(rrefine)library(tidyverse)library(gt)# uploaded yearly admissions data from filmweb scrape in 2022 to open refine and cleaned data# did additional scrape of details for each film on filmweb using octoparse, and uploaded data to open refine# manually added details for Fuglane and DU in open refine (so they remain traceable)# upload data on minimum marketing budgets and reported budgets collected manually in 2019/2020 to open refine# added updated marketing budgets from NFI (page sourced in notes)# manually added filmweb_id to marketing and budget dataset# download refined datafilmweb_data =refine_export(project.name ="filmweb_film_data")filmweb_yearly_admissions =refine_export(project.name ="filmweb_yearly_admissions")marketing_and_budgets =refine_export(project.name ="norwegian_films_2019_marketing_and_budget")# lose the "norwegan_title" column as it caused an errormarketing_and_budgets = marketing_and_budgets [,2:7] #add premiere_year column filmweb_data = filmweb_data %>%mutate(premiere_year =as.double(substr(norwegian_premiere,nchar(norwegian_premiere) -3, nchar(norwegian_premiere)))) #replace NA values in production year column with premiere year and NA values in premiere year with production year filmweb_data = filmweb_data %>%mutate(premiere_year =coalesce(filmweb_data$premiere_year, filmweb_data$production_year)) %>%mutate (production_year =coalesce(filmweb_data$production_year, filmweb_data$premiere_year))#filter out Norwegian films from 2019 - note that there were no maj. Norwegian co-productions released in 2019. If there had been more advanced filtering would have been nessescary. *Barn* is listed with production year of 2018, and there were a few old films re-released in cinemas nessecitating a filter for films newer than 2017norwegian_films_2019 = filmweb_data %>%filter(premiere_year ==2019) %>%filter(production_country =="Norge") %>%filter(production_year >2017)#get total admissons pr titlefilmweb_total_admissions = filmweb_yearly_admissions %>%group_by(filmweb_id) %>%summarise(total_admissions =max(total_admissions))#add admissions data to 2019 Norwegian premieresnorwegian_films_2019 =left_join(norwegian_films_2019,filmweb_total_admissions)marketing_and_budgets =left_join(marketing_and_budgets, norwegian_films_2019)norwegian_films_2019 =left_join(norwegian_films_2019, marketing_and_budgets)
This appendix is based on historical data from the period 2008 - 2018, with some exceptions detailed below, and from observational data on Norwegian movies released in 2019.
The main sources for historical data were provided by the cinema interest organisation Film & Kino and the ticket sales portal and admissions tracker Filmweb.no. Additional data on home entertainment releases was provided by the Norwegian Media Authority through Videogramregisteret (the video title registry) and Platekompaniet, a leading DVD/Blu-ray retailer. NFI provided data on the availability of Norwegian titles on selected home entertainment platforms; this data also included details about the support schemes benefitting the selected titles. Additionally, NFI provided data on support awarded to distribution companies. While more data on support for Norwegian movies and distributors is available on the NFI webpages, it was not available in format that I could download neither directly nor using a web scraper.
The data provided by Film & Kino included title, premiere date, admissions in year of premiere and a single country of origin. This data was limited to movies that had been screened at a minimum of 10 different cinemas, the threshold Film & Kino sets for “regular” releases.
The data provided by Filmweb included title, distributor, multiple countries of origin in cases of co-productions, premiere date, and genres. The data provided by Filmweb also included eksterntittel, a unique code consisting of three letters, which indicated the distributor, and eight digits. This code was also a part of the url to the individual page on filmweb.no for each title[^78].
I ran two web scrapers on filmweb.no to get yearly and weekly admissions for each title. These web scrapers were run twice to ensure the data collected was correct. From the scraped data, I was also able to extract the eksterntittel code, allowing me to combine this data with the previous two datasets. By combining these datasets I could count and measure yearly admissions for local titles, foreign titles, and co-productions. I could also do quantitative analysis of genres and premiere dates for local and foreign titles.
The weekly admissions data was, however, too vast for my expertise and software to use in quantitative analysis. Nevertheless, when loading the data into a simple database programme, I was able to manually identify the last continuous week of cinema screenings for the 2019 titles. I included titles that had up to two weeks without screenings as long as they returned for continuous weeks after. This mainly applied to movies returning to cinemas after the summer holidays.
There is a high degree of transparency in the Norwegian cinemas, and the data provided by Film & Kino and Filmweb is very trustworthy. The data on home entertainment is for various reasons less transparent and less reliable. This partly because of the way the data is collected, and partly because there is less of it.
Videogramregisteret was established in 1987 to provide a baseline of control and editorial responsibility within the growing home entertainment market. All titles sold in physical formats or as EST or TVOD on platforms with servers in Norway were required to register until 2022, when oversight ended. While this data is self-reported and of varying quality, it includes information about each title’s distributor, original and Norwegian titles, and registration dates useful to my analysis. The data from Videogramregisteret also distinguishes physical from digital releases by grouping titles into five registration categories: merke (certificate), trykt merke (printed certificate), VOD, trykt merke + VOD (printed certificate + vod) and inaktiv (inactive)[^79].
There were also other limitations to the Videogramregistreret data: EST/TVOD releases on platforms with foreign servers, such as iTunes, are not recorded, which means data on digital releases is less reliable than that on physical releases. Additionally, Videogramregisteret does not contain home entertainment release dates, only the dates the entry was registered by the distributor. Data from Videogramregisteret was first cleaned by cross-referencing Norwegian titles with the Filmweb data and removing all distributors that did not release a single title in cinemas. Most of these were pornography specialists.[^80]
Norwegian titles appearing in the Filmweb dataset but not Videogramregisteret were examined manually, and in cases where they appeared under slight name variations, such as spelling numbers in the title of sequels in roman or Arabic numerals, the eksterntittel code was added manually. However, due to the sheer volume of titles in Videogramregisteret, this was not done for foreign titles. Data on Norwegian DVD and Blu-ray releases provided by Platekompaniet captured largely releases from 2015 or later, with only a few older titles; all the retailer data was also limited to titles still in stock. Eksterntittel also added to this dataset.
In theory, NFI publishes data on all funding and funded titles on its website. In practice, the website data has been unreliable for several years as NFI has been migrating to a new database. Some data is missing, some data is difficult to find, and very little is easily accessible in a format that allows for quantitative research.
Multiple requests for data were unsuccessful, with two exceptions. I was provided with data on support awarded to distributors from 2013 to 2022, including support awarded by Film&Kino, which administered the schemes until 2016. I was also provided with the datasets that were sources for NFI’s reports on the availability of Norwegian movies in the home entertainment market in 2014, 2015 and 2016. This data included support scheme funding information for Norwegian movies from 2010 to 2016. Again I added eksterntittel to the data to cross-reference with the other sources. In addition I manually added data from the NFI budgets on reported budgets, production support, and marketing support for Norwegian movies released in 2019. For some of the movies that did not receive NFI support I was able to find reported budgets from news stories.
In addition to information I received from other sources, I have classified movies as based on “known” content or “original” stories. All films based on novels, television series, specific historical events, or figures, as well as sequels, have been defined as “known”. Films set in historical periods that do not involve specific events or historical figures are considered “original”.[^81] Documentaries remain a separate category.
Most figures in this appendix only include distributors with at least 10 regular release titles between 2008 and 2018. In most cases I have also excluded companies whose primary function is not film distribution, such as film festivals, cinemas, and independent distribution[^82], including distribution companies that only distribute movies made by a parent company. An exception to this general rule is when local titles have been examined. In most of these cases, distributors that have released less than four local titles in the period have been grouped as “others” for clarity.
Observational data included in the broader dataset encompasses release dates, windows, and prominence on home entertainment platforms for Norwegian movies released in 2019.
Table 28: Norwegian movies released in 2019
Norwegian title
English title
Distributor
Production company
Director
Path
Psychobitch
Psychobitch
Norsk Filmdistribusjon
Ape&Bjørn
Martin Lund
Artistic
Hvor man vender tilbake
Where man returns
Independent distribution
Yellow log
Egil Håskjold Larsen
Artistic (Documentary)
Born2Drive
Born2Drive
Norsk Filmdistribusjon
Fenomen Studios
Daniel Fahre
Artistic (Documentary)
Amundsen
Amundsen
SF Studios
Motion Blur
Espen Sanberg
Market
Kamel
The Artic Camels
Tour de Force
Relation 04 Media
Karl Emil Rikardsen
Artistic (Documentary)
Ut og stjæle hester
Out Stealing Horses
Nordisk Film Distribusjon
4 1/2
Hans Petter Moland
Artistic
Jeg ser deg
Beyond
Europafilm
Turbin Film
Maria Salazar
Ex Post (Documentary)
Askeladden - I Soria Moria slott
The Ash Lad: In Search of the Golden Castle
Nordisk Film Distribusjon
Maipo
Mikkel Brænne Sandemose
Market
Hjelperytteren
110% Honest
Norsk Filmdistribusjon
Ape&Bjørn
Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
Artistic
Barn
Beware of Children
Arthaus
Motlys
Dag Johan Haugerud
Artistic
Kaptein Sabeltann og Den magiske diamant
Captain Sabertooth and the Magic Diamond
Nordisk Film Distribusjon
Qvisten
Marit Moum Aune & Rasmus A. Sivertsen
Market
Astrup - Flammen over Jølster
Astrup: Catching the Flame
Norsk Filmdistribusjon
Handmade films in Norwegian woods
Pål Øie
Regional
Villmarksbarna - En eventyrlig reise
The Wilderness Children
Storytelling
TMM Produksjon
Dag Rune Johansen
Regional
Disco
Disco
Mer Filmdistribusjon
Mer Film
Jorun Myklebust Syversen
Artistic
Brillebjørn på ferie
Bo Bear’s vacation
Selmer
Spark
Liv Glesne Kjølstad
Ex Post (Children’s)
Swingers
Swingers
SF Studios
Storyline NOR
Andrejs Ekis & Stig Frode Henriksen
Ex Post
Spionen
The Spy
Nordisk Film Distribusjon
4 1/2
Jens Jonsson
Artistic
Operasjon Mumie
Operation Mummy
SF Studios
Filmakeratene
Grete Bøe-Waal
Ex Post (Children’s)
De dødes tjern
Lake of Death
SF Studios
Canopy Film
Nini Bull Robsahm
Ex Post
Snekker Andersen og Julenissen: Den vesle bygda som glømte at det var jul
Forgotten Christmas
Nordisk Film Distribusjon
Fantefilm Fiksjon
Andrea Eckerbom
Market
Håp
Hope
SF Studios
Motlys
Maria Sødahl
Artistic
Tunnelen
The Tunnel
Nordisk Film Distribusjon
Nordisk Film Production
Pål Øie
Market
Benjamin Falck og dødsolken
Legend of the ghost dagger
Star Media Entertainment
Creative Lads
Martin Sofiedal
Only released on EST/TVOD
Fuglane
The Birds
Independent distribution
Viper Film
Anders T. Andersen
Regional
DU
Independent distribution
Filmavdelingen
Paul Tunge
Regional
Tønes
Euforia
Kristian Landmak & Andrè Løyning
Regional
This list includes four titles that had no, limited, or alternative releases. Benjamin Falck og dødsdolken was a rare example of a direct-to-video release. DU and Fuglane only had limited or festival screenings. Tønes had a limited regional release, but as it was screened at 10 cinemas it was considered a regular release by Film & Kino[^83].
For reasons detailed in chapter 2, home entertainment observations began before I had fully developed the methodology used in this thesis and made the final selection of which platforms to observe. Observations ended in February 2021, when Tunnellen, the last local movie released in 2019, had been in the SVOD window for 14 days.
Table 29: Home entertainment observations
Date
Platforms added
Data recorded
05.06.2019
iTunes - US EST/TVOD, Blockbuster - Danish EST/TVOD, Viaplay- Scandinavian SVOD, Viaplay Store - Scandinavian TVOD
Category and rank for 2019 titles, category for older titles.
26.08.2019
First 100 of iTunes top chart, using web scraper. Only Norwegian titles added to final database. Last run 07.10.2019.
21.10.2019
Norwegian titles in the first 100 of iTunes Top Chart added manually. EST and TVOD prices for 2019 titles added.
26.11.2019
All Norwegian titles in the iTunes Top 200 Chart added manually
28.10.2019
Altibox - Norwegian internet/television provider distributor with EST/TVOD offers to customers, Google Play - US EST/TVOD
04.11.2019
Get - Norwegian internet/television provider with EST/TVOD offers to customers
26.12.2019
TV2 Sumo - Norwegian SVOD
26.02.2020
From 26.02.2020 and until 24.03.2020 there are no observations of the iTunes Top Chart.
21.04.2020
Nettkino - Norwegian TVOD
Category, row, and rank (column) for all Norwegian titles. All rows and total number of titles in each row. Rows with no Norwegian movies marked “series only”, “no Norwegian movies” or “navigational element”.
16.06.2020
SF Anytime - Swedish EST/TVOD
Added EST and VOD price for all titles when observable without extra navigation, added SVOD field with provider for platforms that offered SVOD and EST/TVOD.