THE BIG PICTURE: HOLLYWOOD AND WORLD CINEMA

by John Moses

More than a year ago, when the members of Fresno Filmworks first met to discuss the creation of a nonprofit, independent exhibitor for Fresno, we decried the lack of diversity in the programming of Fresno-area theaters. Since March, with the formation of the Regal Entertainment Group, that situation has only worsened. The huge conglomerate that absorbed Edwards and United Artists to become the largest theater chain in the U.S. owns more than 500 theaters nationwide, with close to 6,000 screens, nearly 20% of the U.S. market. That dominance is especially felt in our community, with 45 of the 61 multiplex screens controlled by Regal. Since the takeover, Regal management has shown little interest in bringing international or independent films to Fresno, even at the two Clovis UAs that had offered them in the past. And so once again those international films now playing in New York and Los Angeles - The Fast Runner, The Son's Room, Murderous Maids, among others - will not be coming to Fresno this summer or even the fall, unless FFW were to bring them.

This bleak picture, however, is not limited to Fresno, or markets like it. Throughout the country, American audiences are able to see fewer current international films, theatrically or on video, for the simple reason that fewer are reaching the United States. In Global Hollywood (2001), Toby Miller writes, "In the 1960s imports accounted for 10 per cent of the US film market... Today, it is 0.75 per cent. Foreign films are essentially excluded from the US, as never before." And just as significantly, Hollywood's multinational domination is choking off those productions at their national sources. According to Miller, in 1998, the French film industry, the most economically healthy European cinema today, took in only 26% of that nation's domestic box office receipts, while British filmmakers earned only 12% of their national market share! This is not to say that most films produced worldwide are American - India and the rest of Asia still out produce the U.S. by nearly 2 to 1. But Hollywood overwhelmingly outspends in production and promotion all other national cinemas taken together and dominates every market in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Yes, there are dozens of wonderful new films from around the world playing in New York, LA, and San Francisco at this very moment - but not the same number as there were 30 years ago. And if the Hollywood film industry has its way there will be fewer in the future.

Certainly, Fresno Filmworks and its supporters cannot by themselves end Hollywood's chokehold on national cinemas around the world. But by screening films of these endangered alternative traditions, we join with other independent exhibitors to contest Hollywood's global domination of film production and distribution.

August 2002