The Effect of the International Market on Cinema

The art of cinema is in one of its deepest valleys.  Take a look at the previous history of film:  it began as a curio for gawking fair-goers and evolved into the most popular artform in the country.  Scholars argue over when film reached its apotheosis, with a large percentage saying the 1970s New Hollywood and others saying the Golden Age of the studio system.  Some even say that the Expressionistic silent years represented the peak of the format.  Most would agree, however, that the past decade represents a nadir.

It is helpful to lay out what has contributed to a healthy cinema before.  When America had a strong middle class and a vibrant economy, cinema flourished.  People had money to spend on films and studios could make substantial profits catering to many different kinds of audiences, because most people went to the theater, and they went several times a month.  However, the one-two punch of Star Wars and Jaws proved that a single tentpole production could put a studio in the black for the entire year, and provide revenues through merchandising and sequels far into the future.

More importantly, films like Star Wars especially were so spectacular that they communicated on a universal level. The nuances of dialogue and culture could be elided because the audiences were so wowed that they payed no attention anyway.  Thus a movie like Star Wars could be readily sold to the international market without worrying about localization.  The studios, realizing that the massive profits of these films were largely foreign, began to tailor their schedules to place tentpole spectacles in the summer months and shove all the character-driven, "prestige pictures" to the end of the year.

Unfortunately, the studios are using a calculus that alienates a huge portion of the domestic American market.  The money men have determined that the only surefire audience is the under-25 male demographic, because they are undiscriminating and free with their money.  Females are too hard to maket towards and plus, at least in the minds of the studio executives, they only like movies that are impossible to sell to the foreign market.  The same goes for people over 25.  They want to see movies with intelligence and subtlety, both qualities difficult to translate.

It is in this way that the influence of the world market has destroyed cinema.  It has increased the value of empty spectacle and degraded the worth of smart, character-driven drama.  Movies like The Godfather or Chinatown, which were supported by a big studio with relatively large budgets, are a dying breed because their qualities are difficult to express outside of America.