Cinema Culture-Cultural Cinema?

The point of departure for this thesis was an interest in looking at how the tension between cultural commitment and economical gain interacts in the cultural industry. Generally the cinema exhibition industry, which the thesis concentrates on, can be said to be cultural industry with an emphasis on economical gain. Today the adjustment between economical and cultural interests is more difficult than ever, since the cinema industry is strongly influenced by competition from other media outlets through digitalization and globalization. Still the cultural industries have different dynamics depending on their contextual settings. National regulation of the cultural industry and cultural policy of each country (still) play an important role. This thesis looks into how the relation between cultural and economic goals is balanced within the public cinema system in Norway. How do the cinemas experience the tension between these goals? What are their internal and external conditions for meeting the challenges of the new times? What type of strings can - and do - they play for developing their business? The study is based on a case study approach. Research is conducted in two cinemas, chosen as typical for their kind in the Norwegian setting. One is a large multiplex cinema in a larger city in an urban area. The other is a small one theatre hall cinema in a small town in the region. Empirically the research is based on interviews and documents from the cinemas and on written material about the national cinema organizations, public cultural regulations and cultural policy issues. Theoretically the thesis draws on literature on development of cultural industries in the time of challenges from digitalization, marketalization, organizational reorganization and new management strategies. The findings can be summed up as follows: The Norwegian cultural-political framework is based on a welfare system which seeks to provide an equal cultural offer for all members of society. This has included the cinema system as well. For more than 100 years almost all cinemas have been under public control. So it is also today. There has been, however, an important change. The large cinemas in the 3-4 biggest cities have been organized as more independent enterprises owned by the municipalities, while the smaller are traditionally driven as a public cultural institution. These ways of organizing have significant importance for the way of meeting the challenges. Other factors of importance are the size of the organization and the role of the cinema for the city/town and the community. The big city cinema is a large enterprise with a large organizational structure and many employers. The management’s perception is that the cinemas place in the city landscape is essential for the city dynamic and the cultural offer. Among the bigger development strategies that have been implemented is the transformation to stock company. The small town cinema is one-person driven cinema. This cinema has little marketing strategies to lean on, few to none structural developments to make. However there are new developments in digitalization in the movie industry, that will in the near future not only mean positive developments for the large cities in the country, but will surely also make a significant difference for small cinemas across the country.