How Hollywood Became Disconnected From America

July 19, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

Tom Shone explained how Hollywood became unhinged from America and why this was the case:

  • The American film industry no longer seems…American.
    • The star of the Batman trilogy, Christian Bale, is Welsh.
    • Films used to be about Americans on the big screen such as in Forrest Gump or The Godfather. In 2011 among America’s top 20 movies only The Help and Bridesmaids were American stories. The rest took place in fantasy worlds such as Thor or abroad such as The Hangover.
    • The only stories you’ll see about New York is ones where it is destroyed.
    • The Artist, The King’s Speech, and Slumdog Millionaire have won the Oscars – all films about other countries.
  • The reason for this decline is the increasingly lucrative foreign box office.
    • 1993 and Jurassic Park were the first time foreign revenues were greater than American ones.
    • These days 70% of a movie’s revenues come from outside of America.
    • Movies like Battleship which did horribly in the American box office continue to get maid because they do well abroad.

To read the rest of the piece and find many more examples, how Avatar 2 and 3 fit in with this, why this is a Scarlet Pimpernel moment, why Hitchcock used to bill studios for his vacations, how filmmakers used to stake out prospector claims on America, why sets now have to be generic, why the French shouldn’t complain, what industry veterans have to say about it, how South American genres are winning over the north, and what Shone would like to see a movie about, click here.

Source: Slate