But, at the same time, salesmen who are, by definition, kings of schmooze will still be needed. And they will need venues to interact in, to eyeball each other and haggle. That's what they live for. What the American movie companies don't own, they influence, because every overseas filmmaker is conscious of the formulas their films will need to follow to crack into the lucrative U.S. market. So their own films increasingly look like ours, acquiring the talents of U.S. stars or offering lightweight fare or predictable violence-driven action genres.
Art still lives even as the markets often muzzle it.
The movie industry went global long ago. Like all big industries, it is catering to globalization pressures, which in much of the world is equated with Americanization. American penetration in market after market, territory after territory is already well advanced. Increasingly, U.S. firms are buying up screens and production entities around the world. Some countries try to resist with quotas, but it's a tough and often losing battle.