From: reiher@ficus.cs.ucla.edu (Peter Reiher)
Subject: Re: What's going on in the world (as far as film receipts go)?
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 20:02:48 GMT

In article <BRUNNOCK.93Jan24174635@ministry.cambridge.apple.com> brunnock@cambridge.apple.com (Sean Brunnock) writes:
>
>I am inundated with news regarding box office receipts in the USA
>and I'm sick of it. Hollywood is home to the third largest film 
>industry in world. The top two are Hong Kong and Bombay.
>
>What is the rest of the world watching? 

Read weekly Variety.  They don't have everything, but they do have the
box office receipts for the larger European countries (in addition to the
biggest western European countries, they include Denmark, Belgium, and 
the Netherlands, but not, say, Luxembourg; and they haven't included
Eastern Europe, yet).  They also have grosses for the major Asian markets
(Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.), and for Australia and New Zealand.  They
do not have grosses for most of Africa or South America, though they 
occasionally run reports on those countries.

Your statement that Hollywood is #3 is true if you count by number of films
made, but far wrong if you count by grosses, or by tickets sold.  If you
look at the Variety figures for Europe, you will see that, in a typical
week for most countries, 7-9 of the top grossing films are American.
The French typically have a few more local films on their list than the
other countries, due to the more developed French film industry.  Hong
Kong normally has mostly local films on its list, with a smattering of
Hollywood ones.  Japan is usually about half to two thirds American
films, despite conditions in the exhibition business that favor Japanese
films.  Australia usually has several local films, with the rest being
American.  Hong Kong films almost never appear on any list, except Hong
Kong's and Taiwan's.  (Once in a while on Japan's.)  Indian films *never*
appear on any list.  (To be careful, I'm not sure if Bombay is one of the
listed markets or not - if it is, they'd certainly appear prominently there.)
Most Indian films get almost no screenings outside of India, except in the 
form of videocassettes that are stocked in most Indian markets that I've been 
to.  From what I've seen of the Indian popular cinema, one must be Indian to 
appreciate it, I guess.

Variety also lists the top grossing films of the week for Europe, as a whole.
I've never seen a non-American film in the top spot.  It's rare for more
than one non-American film to make the top ten list for a week, at all.
Everything I've heard suggests that, except for a few nations with strong
local industries (India, Hong Kong, Egypt), and nations that artificially
prevent American films from playing within their borders (China, for instance),
American films dominate the world market.  Like it or not, that's the way
it is.

If you're more interested in the art of what's going on around the world
than in the business, Variety has less to offer.  They do cover the major
international film festivals (including some most of us never heard of),
and review the films shown there.  But Variety is a professional publication,
and does not really attempt to assess the artistic situation of the nations
of the world.  They're not the place to go, for instance, to look for profiles
on the most promising new Greek directors, or the general trend in Finnish
cinema.  Film Comment does a bit more of this, but not that much.  I suspect
that there are other publications that do a better job.  Anyone else got
some suggestions?

-- 
		Peter Reiher
		reiher@wells.cs.ucla.edu