From: reiher@ficus.cs.ucla.edu (Peter Reiher)
Subject: U.S. Economic Domination of World Film Markets (was: The Vanishing)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 20:58:16 GMT

In article <1992Jul23.151420.4038@microsoft.com> frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney) writes:
>
>I would be interested to know, and maybe you're just the
>person to tell me, how well foreign art films, so-called, so
>in their home markets. Did THE VANISHING makes tons of
>guilders and francs, for example? Are films that are
>considered to be niche-market films here popular hits back
>home and immediate environs? 

I don't follow foreign box office numbers all that closely, and I don't
remember the home performance of most of the films you named.  In general,
the top ten films for the week in most European capitals rarely have more
than two or three non-U.S. films on the list.  Often, the top film on the
list, though, is a locally made film.  In Scandanvian countries, this often
seems to be a comedy that never appears in the U.S.  In other countries,
it's usually what one would consider an "art" film in the U.S.  I believe
"La Femme Nikita", for instance, did quite well in France.  France,
incidentally, is one of the countries most likely to have lots of non-American
films on its top ten list, a tribute to both the relatively strong French
film industry and the catholic cinematic taste of the French.  Japan often
has non-American films in several of its top slots, too, but they are
mostly Japanese films.  Hong Kong is a strong market for local films (because
of their high quality, probably), and, I've heard, that Indians tend to favor 
Indian films, which are quite different than films made anywhere else.

>I hear how the very American films some of us despair the
>most of, the high-budget, f/x-heavy, action film a la Arnie,
>are exactly the ones that dominate at least some foreign
>markets as well. 

Almost all of them, actually.  Right now, "Batman Returns" is at or near
the top of the box office charts in all the European countries where it's
been released.  In most places where it hasn't been released, American
films from earlier in the year are dominating

>What this says about American cultural
>dominance and what it says about popular tastes everywhere I
>wouldn't know, but I'd love to hear from someone who does.

All I can say is, clearly the American studio system is doing something
right, economically, at least.  Europeans, Asians, and South Americans
(and, for that matter, Africans, Australians, and nearly everyone else)
go to see U.S. films in literal droves.  The extremely high quality of
production values in American films no doubt has something to do with it
(which, in turn, is at least partially based on the fact that American
films cost far more to make than almost any other nation's), as does the
extremely efficient American advertising and distribution network that
stretchs into almost all of the non-Communist world.  Probably the decades-
long experience in producing popular culture films, though often derided
by critics and film snobs like me, has contributed to Hollywood's success
overseas.

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