Last year, I mentioned that if Emerging Markets are truly to dominate the 21st century, then they would have to capture the world’s imagination through ‘soft power’, which I defined to mean cultural appeal. While I expect this will be a long-term process, evidence of Emerging Markets’ ability to transform Hollywood was apparent in a Wall Street Journal article on August 2. According to the article, citing Screen Digest Cinema Intelligence Service, foreign ticket sales now account for almost 68% of the US$32bn global film market, up from 58% a decade ago. Consequently, Hollywood studios have found themselves remodelling their films to foreign tastes.

Examples cited include:

• Greater use of foreign actors in American blockbusters
• A reduction of romantic comedies due to foreign audiences not finding the US sense of humour funny
• The production of original films made especially for markets such as South Korea and Brazil

Unsurprisingly, this is being driven – like virtually everything else these days – by shifts in the global economy, i.e., the rise of Emerging Markets. For example, the WSJ article notes that China is planning to open 35,000 cinemas over the next five years, up from only 5,000 at present.

The point about a more diverse cast is an astute one. As far back as the 1960s, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, recognised the importance of having an African, Japanese, Russian, and Scotsman in the crew of the Starship Enterprise. More recently, the highly successful US TV drama Lost had characters from Australia, Britain, France, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Nigeria, and Russia, giving it much greater breadth of narrative than had it been an all-American cast.

What Sort Of Things Might We Expect?

It’s difficult to say, but here are some of my conjectures:

• Perhaps fewer films with a strong US military theme, since this won’t play well in countries critical of US foreign policy. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, there were rumours that Rambo IV would take Sylvester Stallone back to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. However, when the fourth Rambo film did finally materialise in 2008, Sly went to Myanmar, a far less controversial destination.
• Related to that point, it will be more difficult to cast global villains. Muslim villains are somewhat taboo these days, and it would be foolhardy for a big film studio to portray China as an evil superpower, since this would risk offending a potential audience of 1.3 billion people.
• More emphasis on global coalitions to save the world from alien invaders. One of my main critiques of Independence Day (1996) was that the fight against the alien invaders was waged solely by the US (with President Bill Pullman personally leading the air armada into battle). In future, China, India, and Brazil will surely be taking part in any interstellar conflagration.
• Perhaps more films with ambiguous endings. Hollywood films usually have a clear-cut good guy/gal triumphs over bad guy/gal conclusion, but in my experience, many Asian films end on a more sober and balanced note, and it’s not uncommon for the protagonist to die in the final scene, sometimes in an act of self-sacrifice.
• Potentially more conservative messages. Many emerging economies, although undergoing rapid social change, are still conservative, and this may necessitate certain themes (including sexual themes) being toned down. Censorship is still more widespread in many of these countries than compared to the West (see this list of notable films banned by China, though it fails to mention Avatar).

Going forward, there are still questions in my mind about whether foreign audiences actually want American films to be tailored to their perceived tastes. Surely one of the appeals of American films is that they are… American? After all, when I go to see a French/Korean/Iranian film, I am going to see it precisely because it is French/Korean/Iranian. This is something in which Hollywood will have to strike a balance. However, foreign film studios will also need to strike a balance between remaining original and just producing local clones of Hollywood-style films, of which there are plenty.