Why are foreign language movies not breaking out in USA+Canada?

[Barnack]

2 hours ago, titanic2187 said:

I don't get how reading subtitle is a hinder factor.

 

In my country, reading subtitle while watching movie is a national obligation.   

 

It add paint on the screen, on very beautiful photography it is a bit of a shame, also it can make reveal timing hard (like you get the news before the character or after it) and by definition for a good part of the movie your eyes are not looking at the good place, there is at least 3 good reason for dubbing movies.

Edited August 18, 2019 by Barnack

[cannastop]

16 minutes ago, RealLyre said:

how did America watch Inglourious Basterds if they don't like reading subtitles? 

 

is it not a hindrance when it's a Tarantino 

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tho.

[cannastop]

2 minutes ago, Barnack said:

 

It had paint on the screen, on very beautiful photography it is a bit of a shame, also it can make reveal timing hard (like you get the news before the character or after it) and by definition for a good part of the movie your eyes are not looking at the good place, there is at least 3 good reason for dubbing movies.

You take away from the director's original vision when you watch a dub. Even for animated movies.

[cannastop]

2 minutes ago, cannastop said:

You take away from the director's original vision when you watch a dub. Even for animated movies.

Miyazaki says that subtitles distract from the visuals, which is fair enough. And the Disney/GKIDS dubs of Ghibli movies are usually well done, even if they take some liberties.

Edited August 18, 2019 by cannastop

[RealLyre]

2 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tho.

but I believe that was an action movie right?
 Inglourious Basterds had like 70% German/French dialogue and the movie itself is very dialogue heavy like other Tarantino films.  

[cannastop]

Just now, RealLyre said:

but I believe that was an action movie right?
 Inglourious Basterds had like 70% German/French dialogue and the movie itself is very dialogue heavy like other Tarantino films.  

All I know is that at least one rube was pissed when they saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

[Barnack]

6 minutes ago, cannastop said:

You take away from the director's original vision when you watch a dub. Even for animated movies.

True also for when you eyes are watching on added text on the visual, both are quite the compromise,

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

9 minutes ago, RealLyre said:

how did America watch Inglourious Basterds if they don't like reading subtitles? 

 

is it not a hindrance when it's a Tarantino 

IB has an awards pedigree plus Tarantino and wasn't entirely not in English, that helps sell audiences when they would be leery if it was a foreign-language movie not from a star and director they had a long history with. Because it was a Weinstein Company film, Tarantino probably had an easier time in convincing the studio that Americans would go with the subtitles, one of the Big Six would have had "nervous" execs sending notes like, "Can't they just speak in French/German accented English? You don't want to confuse/alienate Middle America!"

 

It isn't that Americans can't read subtitles at the movies, ever, but they really have to have incentives to do so in large numbers, be it a director/A-list stars they trust, dazzling visuals and/or amazing reviews.  And sometimes those things still aren't enough to get past the biases.

 

 

You know, when films started, everyone had to read to follow the story because they didn't have a way to record sound on film at first. True, the picture switched between the scene and the dialogue, but that was a population that wasn't nearly as visually stimulated like 21st century people who are used to video games, looking at multiple screens at once, etc. and audiences back then managed to follow what was happening in movies just fine, from what I can tell.  Maybe because movies were naturally more visual in the Silent Film era, so the story was less dependent on dialogue anyway?

[Cap]

53 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

USA is one of the most educated country in the world, how can reading the subtitle be an issue for large part of American?

It is called a learning disability. It has nothing to do with education or being smart. 

 

 

[TalismanRing]

56 minutes ago, cannastop said:

You take away from the director's original vision when you watch a dub. Even for animated movies.

Far more than that, you take away from an actors performance.

 

I don't watch dubbed films, except in Anime and then only to see how it differs from the original.

 

The last movie I watched subtitled though was Billy Elliot b/c there was a point where I was missing every third word. 

[cannastop]

1 minute ago, TalismanRing said:

The last movie I watched subtitled though was Billy Elliot b/c there was a point where I was missing every third word. 

Ever tried Kes?

 

 

[WrathOfHan]

1 hour ago, titanic2187 said:

Is The farewell feature heavily mandarin dialogue? The trailer suggest more like a Slumdog Millionaire English/Hindi percentage. 

Yes. Once the story moves to China about 10-15 minutes in, only a couple of scenes have English dialogue.

[TalismanRing]

3 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Ever tried Kes?

 

 

Yes, didn't have much of an issue with it b/c it's not the accents so much as the diction.   Same reason Tom Hardy should always be subtitled. 😛

[CoolioD1]

i do know a fair amount of people who are watching foreign movies they never would've watched otherwise thanks to netflix and amazon and the like. maybe they do less good in theaters than they used to but idk, pretty much every small scale thing makes less these days.

[cannastop]

1 hour ago, titanic2187 said:

Ya, especially two thirds of the film was not in English

 

Is The farewell feature heavily mandarin dialogue? The trailer suggest more like a Slumdog Millionaire English/Hindi percentage. 

 

USA is one of the most educated country in the world, how can reading the subtitle be an issue for large part of American?

 

I feel the problem is just habitual issue and American feel annoyed or irritated for hearing some unfamiliar foreign language. 

Also, most foreign language film are drama or comedy without visual action spectacle, this kind of film suffered a lot now regardless of their languages   

 

2 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:

Yes. Once the story moves to China about 10-15 minutes in, only a couple of scenes have English dialogue.

Wow, they left off The Farewell from the list of foreign language movies on Box Office Mojo.

 

Also the reason why the US doesn't watch many movies from other countries is cultural hegemony.

[AniNate]

The Farewell has an American distributor and America-raised director and lead actor which kind of muddies where it lies.

 

It should be said that the prestige stuff that does get exported here usually hasn't done all that great in its home country either. Audiences the world over largely prefer dumb populist movies whether they're in English or their own language. But in the US' case there aren't a whole lot of blockbuster-type options in other countries that compete with their own output in spectacle, excepting perhaps the recent Chinese megahits, but it's easy to see watching them why they don't translate that well over here.

 

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by tribefan695

[RealLyre]

56 minutes ago, cannastop said:

 

Wow, they left off The Farewell from the list of foreign language movies on Box Office Mojo.

 

tbf the box office mojo chart states that it has be an overseas production to be counted. The Farewell is an American movie.

Edited August 18, 2019 by RealLyre
word

[Joel M]

2 hours ago, Barnack said:

 

It add paint on the screen, on very beautiful photography it is a bit of a shame, also it can make reveal timing hard (like you get the news before the character or after it) and by definition for a good part of the movie your eyes are not looking at the good place, there is at least 3 good reason for dubbing movies.

 

This goes both ways though. With dubbing:

1) You lose the original actors voice which is a big part of their performance.

2)The translation has to take liberties and change words and phrases because they have to match the actors mouth in a different language. You don't hear the exact dialogue the writer created but rather the general gist of it. This might not seem like a big deal for some movies, but imagine how much a script that has a very deliberate pace to it (like Sorkin or Tarantino) will lose in dubbing, or even a comedy that has puns and wordplay humour.

[MovieMan89]

DOM audiences today don't even care about non-franchise American films and we're asking why foreign ones aren't breaking out? 

Edited August 18, 2019 by MovieMan89

[Barnack]

1 hour ago, Joel M said:

 

This goes both ways though. With dubbing:

1) You lose the original actors voice which is a big part of their performance.

2)The translation has to take liberties and change words and phrases because they have to match the actors mouth in a different language. You don't hear the exact dialogue the writer created but rather the general gist of it. This might not seem like a big deal for some movies, but imagine how much a script that has a very deliberate pace to it (like Sorkin or Tarantino) will lose in dubbing, or even a comedy that has puns and wordplay humour.

Yes those drawback tend to be pretty much already in everyone mind too.