Film Trade Diplomacy between France and the United States: American and European Policies toward the Motion Picture Industry 1945-1971 (original) (raw)
2014
This paper examines the internationalisation of Hollywood entertainment in the period c.1949-1965. Two observations are commonly made about the US motion picture industry in this period. The first is that the era witnessed the 'disintegration' of the studio system, with the major vertically integrated 'studios' forced to sell off their cinema chains and also becoming increasingly reliant on 'independent' producers to supply their product. The second is that the period saw US producers and distributors become increasingly reliant on foreign markets as a source of revenue. This paper analyses the 665 films released internationally in this period by Warner Bros. and MGM, for which reliable financial data is available from surviving studio ledgers. It examines the foreign revenues earned by these films, and compares this with the 'international orientation' of the pictures themselves (an international orientation index is constructed on the basis of each film's setting, characters, stars and other creative inputs). The paper finds that the growing importance of foreign markets for US distributors was reflected in the balance of their film portfolios, with an increasing proportion of films with a strong international orientation as the period progressed. The evidence also indicates that independent producers, rather than major studios themselves, were increasingly responsible for the production of this internationally oriented product. Finally, the paper examines the geographical locations where these internationally oriented films were set, and compares this with the international distribution of film revenues for the major studios. Certain national locations were clearly more commonly used as film settings than others, and such differences cannot be simply be explained by their relative value as film markets.
Hollywood and the world: the geography of motion-picture distribution and marketing
Review of International Political Economy, 2004
Production and distribution activities in Hollywood are secured by two main types of firms, majors and independents, complemented by a third type represented by majors' subsidiaries. The characteristics of these firms are detailed, first, in terms of their functions within the Hollywood production agglomeration itself, and second, in terms of their roles in external distribution and marketing. The structure of domestic motion-picture markets is described, with special reference to the geography of exhibition. A statistical analysis of film releasing activity is presented. It is argued that the industry is segmented into three overlapping market tiers, and a hypothetical model of this phenomenon is proposed. Export markets for Hollywood films are shown to have expanded greatly in recent years, partly as a result of strategic trade initiatives underwritten by the US government. The paper ends with a brief commentary on the cultural predicaments raised by the globalization of Hollywood and on the sources of possible future competitive threats to its hegemony.
Hollywood Films and Foreign Markets in the Studio Era: A Fresh Look at the Evidence
2014
The international appeal of Hollywood films through the twentieth century has been a subject of interest to economic and film historians alike. This paper employs some of the methods of the economic historian to evaluate key arguments within the film history literature explaining the global success of American films. Through careful analysis of both existing and newly constructed datasets, the paper examines the extent to which Hollywood's foreign earnings were affected by: film production costs; the extent of global distribution networks, and also the international orientation of the films themselves. The paper finds that these factors influenced foreign earnings in quite distinct ways, and that their relative importance changed over time.
The emergence of indigenous film industries across the world has been seen by many as a threat to the influence of Hollywood on the movie scene. This paper tries to look at the ideological influence of Hollywood on movies the world over. The paper considered the Chinese, Indian and the Nigerian film industries. The three industries were chosen because of their popularity in their continents and some parts of the world. The Theory of Cultural Imperialism is the supporting theory for this paper.
Discussing the phrase Hollywood Hegemony and reasons for the US domination of global film production
The notion that America assumes a position of a world superpower is a point arguably belaboured and the country has moved beyond limits in its bid to establish itself and its identity with power and prosperity. Indeed Henry Kissinger sums this up by noting in 1973 that the world system be based on recognition that “the United States has global interests and responsibilities’ (Chomsky, 2003:148) This discussion focuses on the globalization of television and how the United States of America has used it to establish its presence across the globe.
The film business in the U.S. and Britain during the 1930s
Film was a most important product in the lives of the people during the 1930s. This paper sets out to analyse the underlying economic arrangements of the film industries of the U.S. and Britain during the decade in producing and diffusing this commodity-type to the population at large. In doing this, the paper finds a highly competitive industry that was built around showing films that audiences wanted to see, irrespective of the extent of vertical integration. It also examines the nature of the inter-relationship between the two industries and finds an asymmetry between the popularity of British films in the American market and that of American films in the British market. Our explanation for this is that the efforts of British firms on the American market were not sufficiently sustained to make a significant impact on American audiences
Globalwood: Hollywood's Foreign Market Challenge in the Digital Economy
This study examines the impact of the global digital economy on cost structures in Hollywood, as an example of an information-intensive - or intellectual property-dependent - industry. Furthermore, it analyzes how a shift in industry cost structures due to digital technology has impacted the issue priorities of film industry trade associations and lobbyists in their efforts to set and shape the US Government's legislative and foreign trade agendas. The research aims to answer these questions: 1) Given that digital technology exacerbates the appropriability problem of information-intensive industries by lowering the marginal costs of content reproduction, what will be the response of Hollywood's trade association as it seeks to protect the market dominance of American films? 2) What factors must come together in order for the industry's business-government relations representatives to deem the issue critical enough to merit substantive action? This thesis hypothesizes that it was the conjunction of a growing reliance on revenues from content licensing, as opposed to content exhibition, and a growing dependence on overseas profits, that were the two shifts in cost structure which prompted strategic changes as it became necessary to consider the intellectual property protection infrastructures of foreign nations. Only then did the issue prioritization and agenda-setting activities of the American film industry's trade associations widen in scope and breadth to accommodate the industry's new challenges in the digital economy.
Forum for Social Economics, 2020
From the 1980s to the present, Hollywood's major distributors have been able to redistribute U.S. theatrical attendance to the advantage of their biggest blockbusters and franchises. At the global scale and during the same period, Hollywood has been leveraging U.S. foreign power to break ground in countries that have historically protected and supported their domestic film culture. For example, Hollywood's major distributors have increased their power in such countries as Mexico, Canada, Australia and South Korea. This paper will analyze a pertinent ‘test case' for Hollywood's global power: China and its film market. Not only does China have a film-quota policy that restricts the number of theatrical releases that have a foreign distributor (~ 20 to 34 films per year), the Communist Party has helped the Chinese film business grow to have steady film releases and its own movie star system. Theoretically, China would be a prime example of a film market that would need to be opened with the assistance of the U.S. government. Empirically, however, the case of Chinese cinema might be a curious exception; we can investigate how a political economic strategy rooted in explicit power is reaching a limit. Hollywood is, potentially without any other option, taking a more friendly, collaborative approach with China's censorship rules and its quota and film-production laws.