The Role of Hollywood in Global Film Markets - Essay Example

 The Role of Hollywood in Global Film Markets 1. Introduction The establishment of a framework for the support of activities of film industries in USA has been considered to be a key solution for improving the sector’s performance; Hollywood can be characterized as the key tool of USA film producers for increasing the value of their products. At the same time, the development of Hollywood outside USA cannot be doubted. In fact, Hollywood has strongly influenced the film industries of countries internationally and this fact is reflected not only to the characteristics of films produced in film markets outside USA but also to the efforts of foreign film industries to develop strategic cooperation with Hollywood – Bollywood can be mentioned as an indicative example. The research on the role of Hollywood in global film markets led to the conclusion that the power of Hollywood to influence the global film markets is not standardized; this fact is not related with the Western and Eastern culture but rather to the local social ethics and traditions, which can be highly differentiated even among countries with similar cultural framework – for instance the films produced in the context of the French film industry are different from the films produced in Hollywood even if the culture of both countries is aligned with the Western cultural framework. 2. Hollywood as a key part of the American culture industry Hollywood has been used for the establishment of specific ethics and practices in the film industry; the article of Cieply (2009) shows the methods through which a film can be promoted – meaning the methods necessary in order for a film to enter the market; in the context of Hollywood the success of a film can be followed by the increase of value of its author/ director; at the next level, chances are offered to the creator of the film to seek for a new investor. However, the potentials of a film to be promoted within Hollywood are depended on a series of factors: a) the history of the creator/ author in terms of the success resulted from one of his previous works – either in written format, a book, or in the film industry; b) the experience of the director – again, particular attention is paid on the success of the director’s films in the past, c) films which are not related to Hollywood – for instance films produced in global film markets – are more difficult to be promoted in Hollywood which supports films with specific thematic, structural and technological characteristics, d) the actors play a critical role in the expected success of a film; actors who are well known in the global film market and who have participated in films that proved quite successful – referring to their profits – can guarantee a film’s success – or at least they significantly increase the chances of a film to be profitable. The above criteria for the promotion of films in Hollywood reflect the cultural characteristics of the particular film industry. The credibility of this assumption can be proved by referring to the case of the film ‘Area 51’ – directed by Oren Peli; the representatives of the Agency which promotes the specific film have tried to used the high success of the recent film of Oren Peli – referring to the film ‘Paranormal Activity’ in order to sell the rights of the film ‘Area 51’ to the Hollywood’s most known production and distribution firms (Cieply, 2009); however, they didn’t manage to achieve such agreement with a well-known Hollywood Film Production firm – in accordance with the relevant report, the major firms of the specific industry – including Paramount, DreamWorks and Warner Brothers – did not show interest on the film ‘Area 51’ despite the success of ‘Paranormal Activity’. In accordance with Klein (2003) Hollywood is highly considered to reflect all aspects of American culture; it is explained that Hollywood is regarded as expressing the ‘cultural imperialism’ of United States. The above view leads to the following assumption: Hollywood is not only culture-driven; it is also politically driven – meaning that Hollywood is used to promote not only specific social and cultural trends but also a series of political ideas. This assumption is verified by the fact that well know actors of Hollywood often participate in political campaigns. From a similar point of view, Hurley (2008) supports that the influence of Hollywood on the social trends developed across USA can be high; in accordance with Hurley (2008) Hollywood can have a role in the development of specific social behaviour and perceptions both currently and in the future. In this context, Hollywood is characterized as having ‘hegemonic’ role in influencing the society using a series of ‘contemporary film images’ (Harley, 2008, p.346). The relationship between Hollywood and the culture of USA can be identified by referring to the methods through which films reach the consumers; mass media are used by Hollywood for the promotion of its products to the public; mass media are tools for communicating; under this view, the power of Hollywood in influencing the American culture is based on the relationship between Hollywood and mass media. The latter are thought of having a key role in the development of ‘national culture and cultural identity’ (Schlesinger, 2004, p.9341); therefore, Hollywood should be also considered as having the power to influence the culture of American and its identity. On the other hand, Carter et al. (2006) support that films can directly affect the culture through the promotion of thoughts and beliefs in regard to specific geopolitical events; the intervention of USA in Somalia in 1993 and the presentation of ‘the events through the film Black Hawk Down’ (Carter et al., 2006, p. 228) are used as examples of the potential power of film industry to influence the views of the public on various events that have high political importance. The power of Hollywood to influence the culture of USA could be explained by referring to the themes used for the Hollywood films; this issue is highlighted in a report published by the Financial Times; in that report reference is made to the use of Facebook – a well known social network scheme – as a source of inspiration for the film currently promoted by Hollywood which is entitled as ‘Social Network’ (Garrahan, 2009 in Financial Times); the film indicates a specific policy of Hollywood: themes that refer to daily life and which are expected to attract many people are likely to be preferred than films which criticize political or social problems or crises. In accordance with the above view, the influence of Hollywood on USA culture is not accidental – it is planned in such a way that specific interests are supported. However, the level of this power seems to have been decreased – see Graph 1, Appendix; other global markets have been developed – in accordance with Graph 1, Hollywood is sixth in the global film industry; however, this finding cannot lead to the assumption that Hollywood cannot influence – any more – the film industries in the international market; on the contrary, the specific film industry keeps this role as indicated through the agreements that film industries worldwide try to develop with Hollywood – as described in the section that follows. 3. Hollywood in global film markets – empirical findings and examples The principles and the rules held in the Hollywood film industry are likely to influence film industries worldwide; the global success of films developed in Hollywood has been often used as justification in order to explain the rapid expansion of the particular industry internationally (Adarsh, 2010). However, not all industrial markets worldwide are able to accept and develop the principles of such markets; but where such cooperation is developed it is necessary that the relevant process is closely monitored (Adarsh 2010). The above issues appear in the relationship between Hollywood and Bollywood; the latter is standardized including specific values and ethics – being influenced by the local ethical and business forms. On the other hand, since Hollywood and Bollywood do not have similar ideologies and believes/ ethics, their relationship can be used as the basis for explaining the influence of Hollywood in cultures of different characteristics – referring to cultures that are differentiated from the Western culture which Hollywood represents; worldwide; the agreement developed between Hollywood and Bollywood refers to the strategic cooperation of the above two film industries in order to promote culture. Using the structural characteristics of Hollywood films, Bollywood managed to achieve a high rate of growth; in fact, in accordance with a report published by the PricewaterhouseCoopers, the revenues of the Indian film industry (Bollywood) have achieved ‘a growth of 18% on an annual basis; this has resulted to profits of 153 bn rupees in 2010 – compared to 79 bn rupees in 2006’ (De Ramos, 2007). The cooperation between Hollywood and Bollywood has been one of the reasons for the above success; by following the rules applied on films produced in Hollywood, the Indian film industry (Bollywood) has become one of the most important sectors in Indian economy. Under the pressure of the global recession, managers in Hollywood are trying to develop their cooperation with Bollywood – aiming to support the financial performance of the American Film Industry; the profitability of Hollywood faces turbulences while in Bollywood there is no such threat; in fact, as in India the entertainment is among the most important sectors – along cricket – on which consumers are likely to spend their money, there is no threat of a potential limitation of the Bollywood profitability. In this context, it can be stated that the influence of Hollywood on Bollywood helped the latter to achieve a high growth but, now, this fact is proved to be crucial for the stabilization of the Hollywood’s performance; Hollywood, in opposition to Bollywood, faces severe pressures – in general – because of the recession and its cooperation with Bollywood would be crucial for avoiding a further decrease in profitability. About 10 days ago, Hollywood invited Bollywood in Los Angeles – in order for ‘a common Los Angeles-India Film Council’ (Kinetz, 2010) to be established; the above initiative is part of the effort to increase the cooperation between the American and the Indian film industries. From a similar point of view, Khalaf (2010) notes that the role of Hollywood in the achievement of specific political targets is decisive; the case of Dubai is mentioned is mentioned as an indicative example; more specifically, ‘in the second Sex and the City film, reference is made to Dubai which is presented as a country with no prospects’ (Khalaf, 2010) – compared to other emirates of the area. The specific initiative can be related to relevant political aims: the limitation of the value of Dubai as a destination for travelers worldwide; at the next level, this description of Dubai could lead to the decrease of its geopolitical power in the greater Gulf region. In the above example, Hollywood does not intervene in the country’s film industry but it tries to cause pressures on its current financial and social status – a fact that indicates the relationship between Hollywood and politics – as explained above. It is perhaps for this reason that certain film industries worldwide avoid developing a relationship with Hollywood – as in the case of the French film industry; this trend is reflected to the refusal of ‘the film community in France to embrace Mr Besson accusing him of creating showy Hollywood-style action movies’ (Bintliff, 2009) 4. Conclusion The development of Hollywood worldwide can be justified if taking into consideration its relationship with mass media and its high support from the state and the private sector; moreover, Hollywood has been used as a tool not only for providing entertainment of high quality but also for promoting specific political and social thoughts and trends. From this point of view, Hollywood has been involved in the development of culture and politics across USA. In the context of the global market, the position of Hollywood is not satisfactory – being 6th in the relevant list – as shown in Graph 1; however, it can still influence the foreign film industries, a fact that indicates its leading role in the formulation and development of culture worldwide. References Adarsh, T. (2010) Historic cooperation pact between Hollywood and Bollywood. 12 November 2010. Bintliff, E., 13 August 2009. ‘Melting pot’ mogul. 12 November 2010. Carter, S., McCormack, D. (2006) Film, geopolitics and the affective logics of intervention. Political Geography, Volume 25, Issue 2, February 2006, Pages 228-245 Christopherson, S. (2006) Behind the scenes: How transnational firms are constructing a new international division of labor in media work. Geoforum, Volume 37, Issue 5, September 2006, Pages 739-751 Cieply, M. (2009) Following ‘Paranormal,’ What Price Scary Glory? 12 November 2010. De Ramos, A. (2007) New money is pushing Bollywood into Hollywood's league. 12 November 2010. Garrahan, M., Edgecliffe, A. (2010) Hollywood studios pan in on Google and Facebook, Financial Times, Media Garrahan, M., 31 August 2009. Hollywood aims to leap language gap. 12 November 2010. Hurley, K. (2008) Is that a future we want?: An ecofeminist exploration of images of the future in contemporary film. Futures, Volume 40, Issue 4, pp. 346-359 Khalaf, R., 5 October 2010. Dubai finds itself between Hollywood and reality. 12 November 2010. Kinetz, E. (2010) Hollywood invites Bollywood to LA with new film council to ease filming, deepen anti-piracy. 12 November 2010 Klein, C. (2003) The Asia Factor in Global Hollywood. 12 November 2010 Martin, R. (1995) The French film industry: A crisis of art and commerce. The Columbia Journal of World Business, Volume 30, Issue 4, pp. 6-17 Marchetti, G. (2007) Hong Kong film, Hollywood and the new global cinema: no film is an island. Taylor & Francis McCalman, P. (2004) Foreign direct investment and intellectual property rights: evidence from Hollywood's global distribution of movies and videos. Journal of International Economics, Volume 62, Issue 1, pp. 107-123 Parkes, C., 2 January 2005. US studios buoyed by overseas growth. Schlesinger, P. (2004) Mass Media and Cultural Identity. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, pp. 9341-9346 Appendix Graph 1 – Film entertainment worldwide – market trends (source: De Ramos, 2007) Read More