Sample Book Chapters
Chapter 11 - Foreign Films
“I like a film to have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.”
filmmaker Jean Luc Godard
When discussing foreign movies, what is generally top of mind is art house, which is esoteric cinema most closely associated with Western Europe. Such an orientation may have been the case in past decades, but today several diverse strands of foreign films have penetrated the domestic market (United States and Canada).
The audience for foreign language films in the United States and Canada can be subdivided into three segments. Two of the categories are poles apart—art house and ethnic. Art house is cinema geared toward sophisticated tastes and is a staple of film festivals. Ethnic films are popular-culture films from other countries that are not high brow and appeal mostly to an immigrant population. The third category is a middle strand from a new generation of mainstream foreign films that is neither particularly arty nor so country specific that only ethnic audiences embrace them.
Despite occasional hits, foreign language films are a small slice of domestic box office; just $1.5 million in domestic box office is considered a hit. A small number of foreign language films have achieved a larger, sizable box office.
Foreign language films often face a tough going at the voluntary ratings service in the United States, because imagery that doesn’t raise eyebrows at home can trigger a restrictive audience classification in the United States. Canada’s patchwork of ratings authorities also can impose stringent classifications. One option is to release films unrated in the United States, although ratings are mandatory in Canada.
The key marketing material is the trailer, where again foreign language films face a challenge because of language. Film distributors for domestic release tend not to present dialog or subtitling; instead, they emphasize music and mood, and they usually include narration in trailers. One reason for this practice is the lack of time needed to insert subtitles, so dialog isn’t presented.
In the chase for awards, the obvious outlets are film festivals—which number 800 in the United States and Canada—and various film industry organizations. The Cannes Film Festival in France may be world renowned, but its top award the Golden Palm is not a catalyst for big box office in the United States because winners over the years were of uneven quality, which is a result of film industry politics in Europe.
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Note: Book passages and tables are updated where appropriate, and some bridge text may be added to smooth transitions in the accompanying excerpt.
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Top Foreign-Language Films in U.S. (as of 2005)
Title U. S. Distributor ($ mil.) Year Origin
The Passion of the Christ Newmarket $370.0 2004 n/a
Crouching Tiger Sony Classics $128.1 2000 H.K.
Life is Beautiful Miramax $57.6 1998 Italy
Amelie Miramax $33.2 2001 France
The Postman Miramax $21.8 1995 Italy
Like Water for Chocolate Miramax $21.7 1993 Mexico
La Dolce Vita n/a $19.5 1960 Italy
Source: Marketing to Moviegoers, Variety
GRAPHIC ABOVE -- As the 2003 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign-Language Picture, “Nowhere In Africa” highlights its critical acclaim in ads citing Oscar and German Lola awards. Zeitgeist Films placed this ad for the German-language film in the U.S.
