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cannastop

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

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Continuing with my earlier answer; its distribution that need to change. There is an Indian film in Mojo's top grosser list, Monsoon Wedding, it did poorly in India, not even half million dollar, iirc. It was film made by American studios with Indian actors, something like Slumdog Millionaire.

 

Another is The Lunchbox, which grossed $4.3mn, without diaspora watching that film. The distributor was Sony Pictures Classic, so that managed local audience traction, had a good 30 weeks run iirc.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lunchbox.htm

 

Not only USA, but also other parts of world where Indian films are not usually released at that scale. So if Lunchbox managed to do that;

Dangal could do much much better.

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Personally I find that if there are subtitles, I can't look anywhere on the screen other than the subtitles. Just the way my brain works. Find it extremely difficult to focus on what's going on. So I very rarely watch foreign language movies. That being said, I don't like the idea of dubbing a film, so I don't watch dubs either.

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As Brainbug said, also here in Germany the vast majority choses the dubbed version. Some bigger theaters offer one screen with the OV and that cinema hall is also frequented but in at least 9 of 10 halls the dubbed version is shown.

IMO the figures feel way more familiar when you hear them talking in the language where you understand every world and the exact meaning. It works better undubbed if a star is so well known WW that we also recognize his/her voice but that's maybe the case with 10-20 people.
And if there's not much talking in a film it may not be a big problem but often if I have to look down and up I miss parts of the emotions, the expression in the eyes, the faces. It's almost the same when I write/read something in front of the TV, I can still follow the story but I'm by far not that much into it. My brain is obviously too slow ;).
Plus, the German films are not very good most of the time (even if some talents exist, often in smaller productions, e.g. some days ago I saw the Austrian/Italian/German western-drama „Das finstere Tal“). But our dubbing actors are excellent and the voices are partly more charismatic than the original ones.

Funny thing is, e.g. in Croatia it can happen that the German version is shown which is great for tourists like me. But I have no idea if this is often the case in South-Eastern Europe.

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16 hours ago, cannastop said:

Ever tried Kes?

 

 

Try almost any movie set in Northern England. I even remember watching Brassed Off a few months ago with a bunch of people and pretty much none of them understood what was being said most of the time.

Edited by lorddemaxus
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34 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

I also think that movies with British accepts should be subtitled cause I can't catch half of what they say.  

O mei, what to say about that:

non English speakers, even worse for me, see self-trained...., we watch AUS, UK Eire, CAN, US,... movies too (and often enough 'pray' for subtitles)

 

I feel subtitles are more distracting if they are in my own language, I watch the movies in the original language and the original language's subtitles, then I only glance at them if I didn't understood a word or .... = my brain wont get 'cross-eyed'

Exceptions are when the foreign language also has another kind of letters, than I add either my language or - more often the only available subtitle language - English subtitles.

Means me as a German, I do watch e.g. a Japanese spoken movie with English subtitles, if the movie interests me enough (I do have quite some Japanese movies on my favourite list, and other titles with non Western EU letters)

You should not do that with headaches already there going in 😉

 

Hmmm in the case all those top something lists they decided on are through and no new one arises, that might be a nice addition (after @tawasal  does the foreign language movies list?):

 

non-US English movies with at least a lead having also a strong local accent

Like an AUS indie or a small UK movie telling e.g. something out of the poorer parts of a city or countryside. Or...

 

 

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That's why I download movies and TV shows more and more. They come with English subtitles so that great. I've recently streamed Chernobyl and it had subtitles which helped a lot for the cast minus Stellan is British. I think that English subs for English language is a good match for us who speak it. I also have English subs on a plane for headphones can be wonky plus all the noise around interferes with hearing the dialog.

Edited by Valonqar
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10 minutes ago, Lordmandeep said:

Well I think people will watch movies with subtitles outside of theaters.

 

Like I would not watch a Japanese Anime film in theaters but at home, i would not mind at all. 

I watch it depending on of its a small spaced, slow movie = at home, if its vast landscapes, space, ocean, fast car races,.... in a cinema

But I guess its less difficult at home, if you need a 5 minutes break... as more focus is needed, you wont miss a thing, might even repeat a half-sentence or so, if its Netflix or something else allowing to do that.

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3 hours ago, Valonqar said:

That's why I download movies and TV shows more and more. They come with English subtitles so that great.

Except for the VHS, what medium didn't had subtitle ?

 

All my dvds, bluray, Amazon prime, netflix, there was subtitle on TV for tv show for a long time (even for live sports event)

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2 hours ago, Lordmandeep said:

Well I think people will watch movies with subtitles outside of theaters.

 

Really not sure I get the difference, bigger screen tend to be better for subtitle in general.

 

Do you often go see small budget 2D style english animated movie in theater for your example to be relevant ?

Edited by Barnack
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5 hours ago, Avatree said:

Wow. That's a challenge and a half. Lol

Really? That's not a challenge at all. I mean, for people who understand English well enough like me. The point is, I don't find subtitles distracting at all. I guess we are "trained" since we were little to read subtitles when we watch movies. Because almost all foreign movies here in Indonesia are not dubbed in our own language, including kids movies. Unless it's for TV broadcasting, then kids movies are sometimes dubbed.

 

Subtitles can be distracting when the movie is in my own language though. For example, an Indonesian movie with English subtitles. But I can still ignore the subtitles, and sometimes they help if I can't hear the dialogues. So really, watching a foreign movie with subtitles is not that hard. If we can do it, then you can too.

Edited by catlover
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3 hours ago, Barnack said:

Except for the VHS, what medium didn't had subtitle ?

 

All my dvds, bluray, Amazon prime, netflix, there was subtitle on TV for tv show for a long time (even for live sports event)

I learned with / started to self-teach myself with English VHS and subtitles in the time before DVDs.

It was very difficult to get them, e.g. at a far to my home VHS Video rent shop near to an American army ~ headquarter / barracks thingie. There was a small in comparison shelf with VHS for the hearing impaired 

 

Dubbed DVDs here sometimes (more often if it’s an older movie) neither the original language nor subtitles. Cheap licences mostly

 

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7 hours ago, Barnack said:

Except for the VHS, what medium didn't had subtitle ?

 

All my dvds, bluray, Amazon prime, netflix, there was subtitle on TV for tv show for a long time (even for live sports event)

Uh, prerecorded VHS of films in foreign languages had subtitles....you just did not have the option of turning them off.

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On ‎8‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 2:46 PM, cannastop said:

Like I said, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero. They did nicely in the early 00s in USA+Canada. And there was a variety of movies that did decently in the 90s.

The comedy "La Cage Aux Folles" did extremely well when released in the US in 1979. Became the first subtitled foregn Language film to become a hit with the US General Audience.

 

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21 hours ago, cannastop said:

Forgot The Passion of the Christ. That's subtitled too.

Passion of the CHrist is unusual in that it is a foreign language film in every country on Earth.....no country speaks Latin or Aramaic any more.

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