A while back I noticed something strange while buying some 4K movies. What should have been Nordic releases should of course have had Nordic subtitles like Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. But only the included Blu-Ray disc had them, not the 4K disc.
I didn’t think too much of it then. I was like “Fine, ok, I’ll keep them anyway”.
This was way back when I bought a lot of the first 3 Thor movies last year. Thor: Ragnarok did not have any Nordic subtitles on the 4K disc, while the other 2 movies had.
Last month I bought a lot of 11 4K movies. I didn’t think much of it at the time, until a few days ago. I started to check the back of the movies, just to see if it had any Swedish subtitles. Most of them had. But there were a few that had not. And even one of them was an Italian release (but with the subs). I actually had no idea about that! And yet another one said it was only English subs on both the 4K disc and the Blu-Ray disc but turned out it had more subs, like the Nordic ones.
I honestly started to get a bit tired of this phenomenon. No Nordic texts on Nordic releases. And it got me wondering, maybe they were not even released here from the start?
I started to do some digging about this, and it turns out that the Swedish distributors don’t put the Nordic subs on some 4K discs! No one could answer why in the forum I found where people had discussed this back in 2018.
I continued to look for answers but I could not find any more information anywhere. So I decided to ask ChatGPT, just for fun. And I was surprised! I actually didn’t think I would get a valid answer, but I actually think I got it, and yes, it all makes sense now. It’s a few reasons, so let’s break it down!
International Distributors & Standardization
Many 4K UHD releases are standardized for multiple markets to save on production costs. Sometimes, studios prioritize English subtitles (or a few major languages) for broader compatibility.
Licensing & Rights Issues
Subtitles are often considered separate licensing elements. If the distributor didn’t secure Swedish subtitle rights or found it too costly, they might exclude them.
Nordic Market Bundling
Some releases are made for the entire Nordic region, but instead of including all languages, they may favor Danish, Norwegian, or Finnish subtitles instead. This happens because of deals with different distributors in different countries.
Blu-ray vs. 4K UHD Differences
While standard Blu-rays almost always include Swedish subtitles in Sweden, 4K UHD discs often have different subtitle and audio options, as they are often identical across multiple regions (e.g., Europe or global releases).
Assumption That 4K Buyers Prefer English
Studios might assume that people buying 4K UHD are more likely to watch in the original language without subtitles or that they understand English well enough to not need Swedish subtitles.
After learning this I checked all my 4K movies I have not watched yet, and there’s 4 movies that do not have anything but English and other languages on them.
This made me decide to be more careful when buying used movies from the auction site I’m using. I need to make sure it has the subs, otherwise I will just buy the standard Blu-Ray.
And the ones I already have without, I’m just gonna sell them and just get the standalone Blu-Rays of them instead. No need to have the 4K release at all.
While I am still fine watching without subtitles, I still want that option. Especially as it can be easier for me to focus sometimes. So to me it’s more worth it to get the releases with the correct subs.