首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Hollywood "Globalized" When director Adam McKay pitched a sequel (续集) to his 2004 hit movie Anchorman, he thought it would b
Hollywood "Globalized" When director Adam McKay pitched a sequel (续集) to his 2004 hit movie Anchorman, he thought it would b
admin
2012-08-05
83
问题
Hollywood "Globalized"
When director Adam McKay pitched a sequel (续集) to his 2004 hit movie Anchorman, he thought it would be a no-brainer for Hollywood.
The $ 20 million comedy grossed more than $ 90 million at the box office. But only $ 5 million of that came from ticket sales abroad. Paramount Pictures refused the sequel this spring, fearing the comedy’s uniquely American brand of humor wouldn’t play abroad.
"At the end of the day, the economics of the business have changed—there is so much more pressure to play globally, and we couldn’t fight that," says Mr. McKay.
International Box Office
The rising power of international audiences is a sea change for Hollywood. Decades ago, a movie’s foreign box office barely registered with studio executives. Now, foreign ticket sales represent nearly 68% of the roughly $ 32 billion global film market, up from roughly 58% a decade ago, according to Screen Digest Cinema Intelligence Service.
The result is that one of the most American of products is now being retooled to suit foreign tastes. Studios have begun to cast foreign actors in American-themed blockbusters (大片) like G.I. Joe. Scripts are being rewritten to lure global audiences. And studios are cutting back on standard Hollywood fare like romantic comedies because foreign movie-goers often don’t find American jokes all that funny. Several Hollywood studios have gone as far as financing, producing and marketing original movies for markets like South Korea and Brazil.
"We need to make movies that have the ability to break out internationally," says Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures. "That’s the only way to make the economic puzzle of film production work today."
The rise of the international box office has as much to do with a shifting global economy as with the evolution of the movie business. For years, Hollywood’s bottom line was propped up by double-digit growth in DVD sales. Dwindling (缩减) in-theater audiences in North America also have contributed to the shift.
Another factor: Regions from Asia to Eastern Europe went on a credit-fueled building boom, erecting shopping malls—often with multiplexes attached.
Local Films
IMAX Corp. has opened 66 big-screen theaters abroad in the last three years, including 25 in Asia to increase the company’s brand awareness in Asia.
Satisfying foreign audiences has been tricky for Hollywood. Years ago, audiences in South Korea would faithfully go to the multiplex to watch movies that were written, produced, and cast out of Hollywood. Now, increasingly sophisticated local films are giving Hollywood a run for its money.
In South Korea, ticket sales to local movies accounted for about 10% or 20% of box-office revenue in the 1990s. Hollywood movies grabbed the lion’s share. Now, local fare makes up nearly 50% of South Korean ticket sales, according to Screen Digest.
In 2008, veteran film executive Sanford Panitch was shocked when a Twentieth Century Fox film he worked on called "Jumper" was nearly eclipsed (衰落) in South Korea by a local crime thriller called The Chaser.
Just a few months later, Mr. Panitch was plucked to head up the studio’s new Fox International Productions division. Fox, noticing that local films were eating up more of the foreign box office, had become worried about its ability to reach up-and-coming markets with its Hollywood fare. Fox set up the new division so it could start developing, producing, and distributing local-language movies for those countries.
Mr. Panitch says he sometimes uses Fox’s vast array of film production resources like relationships with special-effects companies to dress up foreign films. But he says it’s more important to draw on local producers and their expertise to make films that appeal to that particular audience. "It’s not about bringing Hollywood tactics to the foreign markets," says Mr. Panitch. "It’s about participating in a local culture enough to create a product that those audiences will actually want to watch."
De-Americanize
Donna Langley, co-chair of General Electric Co. ’s Universal Pictures unit, was recently working on the script for an upcoming big-budget movie based on the Hasbro board game Battleship. The plotline is classic Hollywood: Evil aliens land on earth and live underwater. One of the first people at Universal to read the script was David Kosse, the studio’s London-based president. One worry surfaced immediately: The aliens only threatened the US—a premise deemed "too American."
Universal asked the writers to redo the script. In the new version, the aliens threaten the entire world. "The movie takes place off the coast of Hawaii, but the question we asked was, ’How do we make this a global proposition’?" said Ms. Langley. Universal now tries to have senior executives vet scripts early to look for ways to make them more international.
Last summer, Paramount was worried that its 2009 summer release, G. I. Joe, which cost $175 million, might flop overseas. "People questioned whether it would travel outside the US because the original formulation is a strong US military theme,"says Mr. Moore, the Paramount executive. The solution: Stuff the cast with international stars. In the end, G.I. Joe grossed slightly more abroad than at home, taking in $ 152 million of its world-wide $ 302 million in ticket sales overseas.
But Hollywood has concluded that some movies just can’t make it abroad. "A lot of comedies and a lot of comedians don’t travel, "says Mr. Moore. Paramount and others have begun to give them the ax. Fox Searchlight was recently developing "Baggage Claim," which chronicles a young flight attendant’s search for Mr. Right and stars an ensemble of African-American actors. But that film ended up in "turnaround," the Hollywood term for when a studio abandons the rights to a project and allows others to acquire it. It was heavily targeted to an African-American audience, a factor that often means the film won’t play well abroad.
Since Anchorman 2 was killed. Mr. McKay, the director, has been trying to broaden the foreign appeal of his next project, The Other Guys, a $ 100 million comedy. Sony Pictures will bring it out in August.
A key plot point of the film involves Mr. Wahlberg and Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter. Sony’s executives initially worried that Mr. Jeter- and the joke that involves him—would seem too American. They found a solution: The studio asked Mr. McKay to spend his summer re-shooting those scenes with international sports stars, and it went after soccer stars David Beckham of England and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal.
Sony wanted to release a separate version of the film abroad starring Messrs. Beckham or Ronaldo— rather than Mr. Jeter. Neither soccer player was available in the end. But the studio plans to use the strategy in the future. "I gotta tell you, I loved the idea and still think it’s really smart," says Mr. McKay.
"It’s a whole new way of looking at movies," he adds. "Rather than trying to veer your audience toward the film, just tweak your film to the audience. Next, I’d like to start tweaking movies by region, one version for the Midwest, another for the East Coast, and the South."
What is the great change Hollywood is faced with?
选项
A、The growingly competitive movie industry.
B、The increasing influence of international audiences.
C、The new rules of censoring in movie producing.
D、The changed movie introduction systems abroad.
答案
B
解析
同义转述题。第一个小标题“海外票房”在第一段开头表明,对好莱坞来说,国际观众不断增长的影响力是一种非常重要的变化。并且引用数字表示,现在全球电影市场的规模达320亿美元,而海外票房约占68%,较十年前涨了10%,因此答案为B),其中increasing influence与原文中的rising power同义。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/O2b7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Forcenturies,explorershaveriskedtheirlivesventuringintotheunknownforreasonsthatweretovaryingdegreeseconomican
A、Coupleslivingtogether.B、Gaycouples.C、Thedivorced.D、Thewidowed.D细节辨认题。本题可采用排除法。文中提到他的研究与现实已经不相符合,因为他的三种分类不包括同居者、同性恋伴侣、
A、Therelationshipthecompanyestablisheswithitscustomers.B、Legalresponsibilitiessharedbythecompanyanditscustomers.
A、Thedirectorprobablyisn’tabletomakeanexception.B、Thedirectorprobablywon’tseeher.C、Thedirectorusuallyisn’tver
ThroughoutGeorgeBush’spresidency,thefederalgovernmenthasrefusedtosupportanyregulationofthegreenhousegasesthatc
A、Fiftyundergroundstationsweremadewaterproof.B、Afloodwallwasbuilt.C、Analarmsystemwassetup.D、Rescueteamsweref
Alatesurgeinuniversityapplicationsisputtingextrapressureonsixth-formerstoachievetopgradesintheirexams.F
Farmerscanmakegooduseofsomelandwhileotherareasnearbyarelessattractive,oreven______them.
A、Heisanew-comertotheplace.B、Heenjoysnaturalbeauty.C、Hefeelssurprisedatthechange.D、Heiswearingcontactlenses
A、Unsatisfied.B、Positive.C、Despaired.D、Resistant.B女士询问男士的新房子装修得怎么样了。男士说还不错,他在等工人完成粉刷,他希望他们能很快完成。由此可见,男士对自己的新房子持乐观态度。故答案为B)。
随机试题
乙炔发生器的泄压装置主要有____和____。
A.生长激素B.皮质醇C.肾上腺素D.甲状腺激素具有减少组织对糖的利用、促进糖异生作用的激素
感染性心内膜炎侵犯下列哪个瓣膜最容易并发心力衰竭
一摩尔的刚性双原子分子理想气体,当温度为T时,其内能为()。
监理实施细则应在编制完成后送交雇主审阅,然后再交( )确认,由雇主、监理机构、承包商三方的项目负责人签字,作为该项目监理工作的依据。
个人教育贷款的业务特征包括()。
下图是1956-1964年我国工业与农业的发展趋势示意图。根据该图,判断下列说法中正确的是()。
破坏坚壁财物罪是()确定的罪名。
Mostcareersorganizationshighlightthreestagesforgraduatestofollowintheprocessofsecuringasuitablecareer..recogni
Formostpeople,keepingfitinvolvesanestablishedexerciseroutinebuiltaroundaregularweeklyschedule.Butwhatifyourj
最新回复
(
0
)