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"Europe Goes to Hollywood" Essay

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There has always been an interesting connection between Hollywood and Europe. Hollywood has dominated European cinema since the First World War and at present accounts for approximately 80% of market share in the majority of European countries, while European share of the American market is weak at 5.02% in 2001. The Hollywood advantage is concentrated in one very particular kind of moviemaking: films that are entertaining, highly visible, and have broad global appeal. The typical European film has about one percent of the audience of the typical Hollywood film, and this differential has been growing. American movies have become increasingly popular in international markets, while European movies have become less so. A great effort has …show more content…

American audiences have always had a distaste for subtitles. They are, on the whole, disapproving of art films and tend not to pay them much attention. Out of the 32,000 commercial cinemas across the United States of America, a mere 500 are allocated to the showing of foreign films as well as low-budget American productions. The question is not why Hollywood makes more movies than Europe, because it does not. The question is why Hollywood movies have more global export success, while European movies are aimed at small but guaranteed local audiences. European films in the United States are rarely box office hits (with a few exceptions). Instead, other methods are used to achieve substantial box office success. Such methods include European productions with American money on films such as Chocolat. Additionally, European writers, directors, actors, and film ideas are carried over to America where greater opportunities present themselves. Such celebrities include Fritz Lang, Ingrid Bergman, Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock etc. A recent inclination has been the Hollywood remake of a European film or idea. Examples are Lucino Visonti's Ossessione (1942), which was re-made twice in Hollywood under the title of The Postman always rings twice, first in 1946 and then again in 1981 with Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson. Another remake was Luc Besson's cult film

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