Reinventing Hollywood

by Nader Houella

Reinventing
HOLLYWOOD

Hollywood may no longer be the shining star

According to The journalist and author Pascal Zachary: “We are all Americans now, like it or not”. It is true that the spread of American media, including TV, film and music has been one of the main components behind perceiving globalization as mostly American. Blue jeans, sneakers, hamburgers and the Hollywood blockbuster are some of what is perceived as American cultural icons of our era. Additionally, all of the top 20 grossing films ever are American made or have an American influence, either through publishers, cast, or financiers. However, Hollywood may no longer be the shining movie star or have the lead position by itself. Nowadays, Hollywood is increasingly outsourcing production activities to Canada, India and other countries. In addition, European film productions are becoming progressively more global. What is more interesting, according to experts, is that with 50% of its revenue now coming from abroad, the American film industry sees the growing markets of Asia as its next great frontier.

Are Hollywood films truly American? Is Hollywood really dominating the global marketplace for movies?

The United States cinema has had a deep effect on films production across the world ever since the early 20th century. According to a recent survey by the Radio Times, American films are extremely popular around the world, knowing that The Simpsons, Lost and Desperate Housewives are among the most watched shows in the twenty countries surveyed. However, “Hollywood” is actually controlled by foreign film production companies. The major film studios are Fox Entertainment Group owned by News Corporation, Paramount Motion Pictures Group directed by Viacom and Sony Pictures Entertainment owned by Sony. Sony Pictures Entertainment is the television and film production and distribution unit of the Japanese media corporation Sony. After acquiring the American film and television production company Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989, Sony became in October 2002 the world’s leading film producer and distributor with 1.4$ billion in revenues and with 19.4% of the market place. Moreover, and surprisingly for many, Sony’s Special Effects and animation arm, Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) is expanding far beyond its Hollywood campus’ geography. SPI purchased 51% equity in Chennai India based effects and animation studio FrameFlow. FrameFlow, which is renamed Image works India, worked with Sony Picture Imageworks on special effects for many movies such as Click, Ghost Rider and Spider-Man 3. According to SPI executive vice president Jenny Fulle, “The level of professionalism and quality of work that we experienced in working with FrameFlow team was exemplary, and gave us the confidence to extend and establish a strong long term relationship”. Due to the ne partnership between SPI and Image works India, the technology of effects and animation are spreading around the globe and the American technology is extending to new countries.

In addition to that, Asia is the most likely candidate to compete with Hollywood for the lead. India and China boast together one-third of the world’s population and have successful and booming film and television industries. According to the media scholar Christina Klein, “the blockbuster “Kill Bill” films exemplify the increasingly global nature of Hollywood not solely because of director Quentin Tarantiono’s heavy incorporation of foreign stylistic elements”. “Kill Bill”, like many other Hollywood productions, relied heavily on offshore labor. Nowadays, Hollywood is facing “runaway productions”, which are films and TV shows shot almost entirely outside of the U.S.

Throughout the 1990s, Canada was Hollywood’s alternative shooting location since it offers to reduce a film’s budget up to 25%. Now, Canada confronts greater competition from other countries like China, Mexico, and Brazil presenting less-expensive working labor and developed facilities. In addition to moving the shooting scenes, Hollywood can’t be seen as “American”, since many of Hollywood’s audiences and actors and directors are actually foreign, and have been since the early 20th century. Hollywood is expanding its embrace to include performers from Hong Kong and Japan, scripts from South Korea, and production facilities in New Zealand and China. We can take the example of the “Hero” by Jet Li: this Oscar global film has a Chinese director, Hong Kong actors and Hollywood financing. Furthermore, more than half of the spectators for many of blockbusters are from outside the United States of America. According to a 1999 study commissioned by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, off shoring production has increased from 14 percent of total US film and television productions in 1990 to 27% in 1998.

Hollywood, which represents the triumph of American movie stars, also symbolizes the American cultural domination. However, many Hollywood blockbusters are considered filmed offshore since they were outsourced to benefit from cheap foreign worker, facilities, equipment and locations. Off shoring production activities, using overseas shooting scenes and employing foreign actors are changing the media landscapes in America and around the world. Perhaps we can now start talking about the “Hollywoodization” of Asia due to the strong ties between Asian and American film industries. Therefore, the popular belief that Hollywood is dominating the global marketplace for movies no longer stands still. It is time to reinvent Hollywood’s image.