Simultaneous VOD Release In 11 Territories For Nymphomaniac Director’s Cut

The film’s Director’s Cut will be released on October 2 on VOD simultaneously in Denmark, the US, Canada, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Estonia. “To us it seemed obvious to do a VOD release for the Director’s Cut due to the huge attention and great fan group Lars has. It is interesting to experiment with this for a film as hyped as Nymphomaniac,” said Rikke Ennis, TrustNordisk CEO to nordiskfilmogtvfond.com. “

While the aforementioned territories have agreed on a common VOD launch on October 2, some have gone ahead with a cinema premiere prior to the VOD release. “In some territories such as Denmark and the US, it made sense to do theatrical events before the VOD release to create extra attention. The exact motivation depends on the local strategy,” noted Ennis.

In Denmark where the Director’s Cut has received rave reviews, the film is playing in 11 venues since September 10 and over 3,000 Danes have watched it so far. In the US the film will have its North American premiere on September 21 at the Fantastic Fest in Austin prior to its US VOD launch via Magnolia Pictures.

In Poland where the theatrical release of the shorter Nymphomaniac 1 & 2 was one of the most successful in the world (240,000 total admissions , against 212,000 for Germany or 50,000 for Denmark), the local distributor Gutek has also opted for a theatrical release of Nymphomaniac Director’s Cut ahead of the October 2 VOD launch. Jakub Duszynski, Head of Acquisitions explained to us his strategy. “We have released the uncut version on September 15 in a limited run (15-20 cinemas), without a major marketing and promotional campaign for various reasons. First of all because of the moral restraints in Poland, we have preferred to do a quieter and smaller release for the uncut Nymphomaniac, unlike for the shorter version that we launched with a big marketing push last January. We don’t want to offend the audience so at the cinema box office, we have clearly indicated that the film contains graphic sex scenes. Secondly this time around, the film is already known and we don’t expect that many viewers to want to watch it in its uncut format, thirdly, the fall period is very crowded with 17 releases a week, so it’s hard to find screen space.“

Duszynski continues: “The VOD release on October 2 will also contain the same information, warning the audience of potentially offensive graphic sex scenes. We are looking forward to this VOD experiment across territories and are curious to see the results. We love the film and want to support it the best we can.”

Other territories have put together their own release strategy for Trier’s uncut Nymphomaniac. In Germany for instance, Concorde Distribution will release the film directly on DVD/Blu-ray and on VOD in November. “The release of Nymphomaniac 1 & 2 was not as successful as expected,” notes Lutz Prauser, Head of Marketing.”

In Iceland Greenlight Films had released Nymphomaniac 1 & 2 simultaneously in cinemas and on VOD as part of an innovative distribution initiative backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Nymphomaniac Part 1 had 4,063 online rentals and 1,768 admissions while Nymphomaniac Part 2 had 1,854 VOD rentals plus 435 cinema admissions. The film’s Director’s Cut will go straight to VOD in Iceland.