While there are a lot of reasons for the broadcast media's slow erosion, one of those we really haven't talked about much here is the increasing purpose of Hollywood to make movies for an international audience, instead of a domestic one. Now, for the first time in history, Hollywood is selling more product overseas than they do at home; and this is going to increase.
What this means is that before the film is even made, they think of what an audience in Australia, Korea, France, Germany or China, etc. will think of it. This is when you see movie after movie flop in the U.S., they always come right back with the international sales to soften the blow.
One other thing they are having to continually do is to release the films simultaneously. This is in response to the piracy problem they have if someone copies it in America and sends it to friends all over the world before the movie gets there.
The great majority, if not all of the expensive films made from now on will be decided by its international draw, not its domestic.
Films made in America will not start to show a profit until it is released overseas. It now costs an average of $100 million dollars to make and market a film from America.
A little known fact is that all the most popular films recently made have all been watched overseas more than in America. For example Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia and the last Star Wars, along with the popular animated features like Shrek and Toy Story.
Some try to say it's because of demand overseas, and that is partly true, but the real reason is that the Hollywood business model is failing and going global is a short-term fix to a problem that won't go away.
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