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cannastop

Is it possible for non-American movies to be worldwide blockbusters?

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This was inspired by @Eric!'s post about box office stories, and one of the stories was Ne Zha. He wondered if Chinese animation will ever have a worldwide hit.


Now Ne Zha is already as huge as many of the biggest hollywood movies ever worldwide, but just in China. Ne Zha is based on Chinese mythology, so it in particular is probably not a good candidate for international breakout, although it was shown in some IMAX screens in North America.

 

But then again, why would Chinese mythology be more impenetrable than say... Spider-Man?

 

I don't know. I'd like people to speculate if a non-American movie will ever make $1 billion worldwide, and with significant numbers from other countries.

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Question open ended for centuries make the answer yes sound always much more certain.

 

BR made 900M about a very non american subject and a 50m budget, would it have been impossible without fox involvement and a British production ? If yes would it be the case in a future with a 100% online distribution and marketing model ?

 

The Inchouchable having a Green Book + 20% run in China and The Upside+ 20% domestic run would have made over 640M, probably more than enough to go toward the blockbuster side if it's 426m run isn't enough. 

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3 minutes ago, JB33 said:

No, because I think both the English language and North American/English IP's reign supreme.

There is a lot of non American English movies, South Korea could easily make the equivalent of an Bong Joon-ho type of director in English for most of the run time if they huge budget and that was still a big factor, UK production obviously are in English.

 

Bond/Potter one day could become British movies, under some metric the Lord of The Rings were considered non-Americans production.

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Just now, Barnack said:

There is a lot of non American English movies, South Korea could easily make the equivalent of an Bong Joon-ho type of director in English for most of the run time if they huge budget and that was still a big factor, UK production obviously are in English.

 

Bond/Potter one day could become British movies, under some metric the Lord of The Rings were considered non-Americans production.

That's why I said North American/English. What I should have said was 'British', not English.

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7 minutes ago, JB33 said:

No, because I think both the English language and North American/English IP's reign supreme.

Well maybe it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe a Chinese movie can make $600 million in China, $50 million in South Korea and $100 in Japan.


Nothing like that has ever happened though.

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2 minutes ago, Barnack said:

There is a lot of non American English movies, South Korea could easily make the equivalent of an Bong Joon-ho type of director in English for most of the run time if they huge budget and that was still a big factor, UK production obviously are in English.

 

Bond/Potter one day could become British movies, under some metric the Lord of The Rings were considered non-Americans production.

Oh yeah, maybe I should have phrased it better.

 

Still, Potter was made with American money, with an American director for the first two movies.

 

Lord of the Rings was made with majority American actors, I think?

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Just now, cannastop said:

Oh yeah, maybe I should have phrased it better.

 

Still, Potter was made with American money, with an American director for the first two movies.

 

Lord of the Rings was made with majority American actors, I think?

The source material is British though. That's what I personally was getting at. British and North American IP's are the biggest in the world and it's no contest, at least as far as movies are concerned. Several Asian IP's are popular worldwide (ie. Pokemon) but we saw what happened with the movie. Even then it still saw its largest chunk of the worldwide gross come from NA.

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1 minute ago, JB33 said:

The source material is British though. That's what I personally was getting at. British and North American IP's are the biggest in the world and it's no contest, at least as far as movies are concerned. Several Asian IP's are popular worldwide (ie. Pokemon) but we saw what happened with the movie. Even then it still saw its largest chunk of the worldwide gross come from NA.

Maybe it doesn't even have to be a pre-existing IP, you know.

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Just now, cannastop said:

Maybe it doesn't even have to be a pre-existing IP, you know.

Of course it doesn't have to be, but in today's movie landscape audiences are looking for something they know, especially if it's a foreign film. You're asking if a non American movie can be a worldwide hit. I'm saying there's no way that there is anything China or India or whatever is making that could be a worldwide hit. Audiences just wouldn't be interested.

 

You cited an example in one of your earlier posts of a film doing $600M in China, $100M in Japan and $50M in SK. I don't really count that as a worldwide hit. That's an Asian hit. What I thought you were getting at was is there a movie made by a foreign country that could be a hit almost everywhere and I just don't think that's possible because most audiences won't have the slightest interest. Conversely, worldwide audiences do have an interest in North American/British IP's and that's how those gigantic, worldwide hits happen.

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Some historians call the 20th century the "American Century". One reason for that is not only the political rise of the United States, but also the cultural hegemony of it. Nearly all of Western Europe till 1990 and after that also parts of Eastern Europa were "americanized" to an extent; what was (and is) popular in the US was (and is) also popular in Europe. Bam. Thats together with Canada over a billion people right there customed to watching american movies.

 

The same american cultural influence struck in Australia, some parts of Africa like South Africa and also heavily in Japan and South Korea. Bam. Some more hundreds of millions of people watching american or american-influenced movies. Add to that more asian nations atleast since the beginning of the 21st century like India, who have of course their own Bollywood movie culture but since half of the world sees Hollywood movies, they seem to just go along in recent years. Hence the record breaking numbers from there in recent years just like in countrys like Brazil or Mexico.

 

China otoh just isnt a cultural hegemon in terms of moviegoing. They have their own style which the Chinese people obviously like, but the same cant be said for nearly the whole rest of the word. That whole rest though sees Hollywood movies for nearly a century now as the prime source for movies.

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2 minutes ago, Brainbug said:

Some historians call the 20th century the "American Century". One reason for that is not only the political rise of the United States, but also the cultural hegemony of it. Nearly all of Western Europe till 1990 and after that also parts of Eastern Europa were "americanized" to an extent; what was (and is) popular in the US was (and is) also popular in Europe. Bam. Thats together with Canada over a billion people right there customed to watching american movies.

 

The same american cultural influence struck in Australia, some parts of Africa like South Africa and also heavily in Japan and South Korea. Bam. Some more hundreds of millions of people watching american or american-influenced movies. Add to that more asian nations atleast since the beginning of the 21st century like India, who have of course their own Bollywood movie culture but since half of the world sees Hollywood movies, they seem to just go along in recent years. Hence the record breaking numbers from there in recent years just like in countrys like Brazil or Mexico.

 

China otoh just isnt a cultural hegemon in terms of moviegoing. They have their own style which the Chinese people obviously like, but the same cant be said for nearly the whole rest of the word. That whole rest though sees Hollywood movies for nearly a century now as the prime source for movies.

Bingo. You summed it up much better than I did.

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8 minutes ago, HeadShot said:

Crouching tiger + intouchables were big. I'm sure something could smash even harder. I mean isn't Minions technically from france or whatever.  If they just make something thats appealing enough it should be possible. 

Well yeah kind of. But Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was made specifically with the international audience in mind. it wasn't even that huge of a hit in Chinese speaking areas.

 

Intouchables comes pretty close to what I'm talking about, as a international blockbuster that makes money from many different countries. Made pretty much nothing in USA+Canada though. Also of course, it was an outsize hit in its home country. It actually did pretty nice, with about 38% of its gross made in France, but Hollywood movies can go lower in that ratio.

 

Another phenomenon is Your Name, but that was 65% made in its home country of Japan.

 

Spirited Away, of course, was a huge hit in China this year.

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4 minutes ago, Brainbug said:

Some historians call the 20th century the "American Century". One reason for that is not only the political rise of the United States, but also the cultural hegemony of it. Nearly all of Western Europe till 1990 and after that also parts of Eastern Europa were "americanized" to an extent; what was (and is) popular in the US was (and is) also popular in Europe. Bam. Thats together with Canada over a billion people right there customed to watching american movies.

 

The same american cultural influence struck in Australia, some parts of Africa like South Africa and also heavily in Japan and South Korea. Bam. Some more hundreds of millions of people watching american or american-influenced movies. Add to that more asian nations atleast since the beginning of the 21st century like India, who have of course their own Bollywood movie culture but since half of the world sees Hollywood movies, they seem to just go along in recent years. Hence the record breaking numbers from there in recent years just like in countrys like Brazil or Mexico.

 

China otoh just isnt a cultural hegemon in terms of moviegoing. They have their own style which the Chinese people obviously like, but the same cant be said for nearly the whole rest of the word. That whole rest though sees Hollywood movies for nearly a century now as the prime source for movies.

Yeah but we have had many popular tv shows that are in foreign languages. Eg. Skam and Dark. I don't see why that couldn't translate into movie success. 

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9 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Lord of the Rings was made with majority American actors, I think?

Soron, Boromir, Galadriel, Legolas, Gandalf, Pippin/Merry/Elendil, Bilbo, Saruman, Gimli, Gollumn, Elrond were all british, Australian, New Zealanders, Mortensen is quite international.

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8 minutes ago, Brainbug said:

Some historians call the 20th century the "American Century". One reason for that is not only the political rise of the United States, but also the cultural hegemony of it. Nearly all of Western Europe till 1990 and after that also parts of Eastern Europa were "americanized" to an extent; what was (and is) popular in the US was (and is) also popular in Europe. Bam. Thats together with Canada over a billion people right there customed to watching american movies.

 

The same american cultural influence struck in Australia, some parts of Africa like South Africa and also heavily in Japan and South Korea. Bam. Some more hundreds of millions of people watching american or american-influenced movies. Add to that more asian nations atleast since the beginning of the 21st century like India, who have of course their own Bollywood movie culture but since half of the world sees Hollywood movies, they seem to just go along in recent years. Hence the record breaking numbers from there in recent years just like in countrys like Brazil or Mexico.

 

China otoh just isnt a cultural hegemon in terms of moviegoing. They have their own style which the Chinese people obviously like, but the same cant be said for nearly the whole rest of the word. That whole rest though sees Hollywood movies for nearly a century now as the prime source for movies.

Well are you saying the 21st Century will also be the American century?

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2 minutes ago, HeadShot said:

Yeah but we have had many popular tv shows that are in foreign languages. Eg. Skam and Dark. I don't see why that couldn't translate into movie success. 

One involves just having cable or streaming. The other involves paying lots of money at cinemas. Detective Pikachu this year was a good example of how things that work elsewhere don't necessarily work at the box office.

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1 minute ago, cannastop said:

Well yeah kind of. But Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was made specifically with the international audience in mind. it wasn't even that huge of a hit in Chinese speaking areas.

 

Intouchables comes pretty close to what I'm talking about, as a international blockbuster that makes money from many different countries. Made pretty much nothing in USA+Canada though. Also of course, it was an outsize hit in its home country. It actually did pretty nice, with about 38% of its gross made in France, but Hollywood movies can go lower.

 

Another phenomenon is Your Name, but that was 65% made in its home country of Japan.

 

Spirited Away, of course, was a huge hit in China this year.

I think Intouchables was sabotaged in the US by Harvey Wienstein. He wanted to make an english remake lol. 

 

There are honestly just a few examples so I think it could happen again. But even American movies struggle nowadays unless they are based on a famous IP  and even then it can lead to failures  - MIB, Dora, Godzilla, Pokemon etc.

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