The international box office is increasingly becoming the biggest market for the film industry, and this has influenced many areas of the industry including casting, advertising, scripting, and so much more. How does the international box office differ from the U.S. or U.K. markets?
The international box office includes markets like France, Japan as well as China, and India. These countries constitute a major part of the 70% revenue share which has been attributed to the international box office.
Because of cultural differences, language and other aspects, the international box office has different preferences from the U.S and U.K market. For some genres, the effect is not noticeable; the effect is, however, very noticeable with genres such as comedy.
Comedy is not exactly the best movie genre to export. This is because comedies relate to specific regions. What can be classified as comedy in the US or UK, for example, may not be comedy in China. An instance is the movie Think Like A Man which did very well in the US market which was its domestic market. However, the movie didn't do so well in the international market. The difference was about 90 million USD to about 4 million USD. Studios are thus making efforts to commercialize comedies to enhance their international appeals. Comedies appeal more to natives of their home country because of a combination of cultural references, use of pun and regional humor style.
Although the US and US market does not react noticeably to cast diversity, research has shown that the international market reacts to cast diversity. The reaction to cast diversity may be in addition to other factors though. A study by Roberto Pedace that examined how cast diversity affects the performance of films in the international market showed that movies with nonwhite lead characters do not do as well as movies with lead characters in the international market. This study controlled other factors that could affect the performance of a movie. This study also did not find any relationship between the performance of a movie in the international market and gender diversity.
One could thus infer, from this study, that the international market prefers all white cast than a culturally diverse cast. One could also infer that the gender of lead characters does not affect the performance of a movie in the international market.
Action films are known to do well in the international market, as they capitalize on the global appeal of their stories. Movies like Fast and Furious do well both in the US, the UK and the international market, especially countries that find foreign action appealing. Such countries include China, Italy and Mexico. To increase the appeal of action films to specific international markets, studios ensure measures such as sensitivity to other countries when choosing the origin of villains and inclusion of heroes from countries that they aim to appeal.
The international market does not have a particular preference for romantic movies, dramas and documentaries. The performance of movies in these genres in the international market depends on factors such as relatedness of the storyline and cultural and political sensitivity.
Overall, a sizeable proportion of box office comes from the international market. The preference of the international market is becoming more noticeable than ever, and the movie industry is increasingly making adjustments to fit these preferences.
