Silvija Van Dalen

Government Financing of Film and Film Policy: the Effect of Subsidy on Box Office Success in the Netherlands Silvija Van Dalen

This research explores the relation between subsidies for Dutch feature film production and box office revenues, in the context of policy objectives that have been formulated since 1997. The objectives were predominantly focused on: the increase of production volume; the improvement of quality and commercialization of film; entrepreneurship among producers; and attention to the audience. The main goal was to establish an economic viable film sector. Incentives managed to help increase the production volume of Dutch films, as well as the number of commercial films, but these successes were short-lived. In the end, the Dutch film sector did not become self-sufficient. Policy was focused too much on production and failed to implement measures specifically for demand. However, shifting the emphasis in policy to demand does not guarantee a better result, because all that is certain in the movie business is that nothing is predictable.