Best sellers at the box office
Out of the best-selling movies of all time, the top 136 are American (or a joint project between US and foreign film makers). The top-selling film in history is Titanic, making $1,835,000,000 (Matt has never seen this film!). Number 137 on the list is the British film Slumdog Millionaire which made $362,000,000.
In Japan, the best-selling movie is Ponyo making $171,000,000 so far. The #3 top-selling film in Japan is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (American) making $61,500,000.
Film is a way of telling a story – the story of our culture, history and people. To protect their own “storytellers” many countries have reacted against Hollywood imperialism. The UK, Mexico, France, South Korea, Brazil, Pakistan and Italy established “screen quotas” that require cinemas to show a certain percent of domestic films.
Maybe it’s not as bad as it seems…
Actually, many of the movies on the top-selling list were American films made with other countries – the British and Americans have been making movies together since 1937.
Many foreign actors from Australia (Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman), Austria (Arnold Schwarzenegger), China (Chow Yun-Fat, Joan Chen), Mexico (Gael Garcia Bernal, Salma Hayek), Japan (Ken Watanabe), and Spain (Penelope Cruz) are as popular in Hollywood as in their home countries.
Many American films are actually made overseas like in Canada or New Zealand because it’s cheaper. Also, the staff that work on the production come from all over the world. For example: animators from Japan, make-up artists from Britain, sound engineers from Germany, script writers from Holland, etc…
Films from Spain, Mexico, China, South Korea and Japan (i.e. Spirited Away/千と千尋の神隠しand Departures/おくりびと) are becoming more and more popular abroad. Germany, Denmark, Nigeria and India are all enjoying domestic movie booms where local films are actually more popular than Hollywood films. In fact, when South Korea recently lowered its domestic film “screen quota” from 40% to 20%, nothing happened – domestic films remained just as popular as before.
Hollywood doesn’t just influence the world, the world influences Hollywood. Moulin Rouge is taken directly from Indian Bollywood-style musicals. Many American directors are copying the style of Mexican director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu and several famous Hollywood actors have starred in his films. Japanese animation has inspired a new style of adult animated films in America. Japanese horror movies likeザ・リング and呪怨 were remade into the popular movies The Ring and The Grudge. Even within the US, there is the “Indy” film movement that uses less money and mostly unknown actors. Many of these independent films win awards and are as popular abroad as in America.
Friday, January 8, 2010
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