THEME 4: QUANTITATIVE METHOD

For this week’s topic I chose to base my answer using the paper Explaining Global Box-Office Tastes in Hollywood Films: Homogenization of National Audiences’ Movie Selections.
The study is using the quantitative method with the goal of proving the cultural convergence theory by using certain sources to support the hypothesis constructing the theory.

The paper discusses the commonness in today’s media and the homogenization to which that leads. The preferences for Hollywood filmmaking have combined certain cultures worldwide into one community so audiences all around have reached similar tastes no matter of location, nationality and culture. 

The research focuses on Hollywood as a preferred source worldwide and quantifies both the taste similarities and dissimilarities across the viewers of American blockbusters worldwide. It tries to resolve whether the spectators form different parts of the world have converged their tastes in terms of movie selection and what is the reason behind this.

 The conclusion is based on statistics of the box-office sales for both the USA and other 57 countries for the period between 2002-2007 using movie sales figures from an online database. 

The research further analyzes national theatre attendance as an empirical result and the ticket revenue contribution in order to form the scale of the market because admission receipts manifest the realized audience demand for individual movies.

The conclusion of how this homogeneity is obtained is based on certain factors such as the cultural differences and the economic scales. Culturally close to the US countries tend to offer bigger range of Hollywood productions and do not limit with the screenings of blockbusters only. This is due not only because of similarity in tastes but also due to factors such as similar lifestyle, views, understandings, religion etc.

The conclusion of the paper is positive about the spreading existence of this homogenization because of the rise of better understanding of the American culture due to its fast spread and the theatrical consumption of its products, all confirmed by the statistics used for the research.

The observed period shows that even countries, which are culturally distant to the American market offering, tend to be more open and start to build up similarity due to more open policy and the Hollywood’s ability of offering broad appeal of products. No matter the cultural or economic background what the paper concludes is that the Hollywood’s product exportation has moved toward a state of uniformity.

The downsides of the paper’s way of observation are in my opinion 2.

·      1^st it is limited to the 6-year period without being able to gain further information about previous years. The main source used stores information for the years from 2001 onwards, which more or less restricts the whole image. It is interesting and important for the topic to observe Hollywood’s influence over the years and gain knowledge about the film tastes over the media globalization history.

·      2^nd the paper is restricted in observing the Hollywood’s market without paying attention on the local markets and the home productions of certain countries. It mentions that some countries have well developed cinema market so a comparison between those markets and the Hollywood one would be a good point in showing whether there is really an allowance of homogenization. There are numbers of national cinema industries, which are self-sufficient and tend to cultivate tastes, which are less dependent from the import of foreign production.

Used sources:

Wayne Fu W. and Govindaraju A. (2010) Explaining Global Box-Office Tastes in Hollywood Films: Homogenization of National Audiences’ Movie Selections, Communication Research Vol.37. Available at: http://crx.sagepub.com.focus.lib.kth.se/content/37/2/215.full.pdf+html