Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Alan Perlo's avatar

I agree with your general point made in this article. However, the notion that major foreign directors have a je ne sais quoi that the major American directors lack would need to be further specified. As far as I know, the top-grossing films that do historically do well internationally are action and franchise movies where dialogue, social commentary and well-crafted humor are less important, because executing these things well depends a lot on the background and tastes of a specific national audience and can be literally "lost in translation". To most moviegoers, what sways them in watching a film at the cinema is what piece of IP it is based on, not whichever director was hired to direct that specific franchise installment. With that being said, the graph you have does show a trend of international directors outperforming American ones. Perhaps making it to Hollywood for a foreign director requires more initiative and skill than reaching it as an American director.

Expand full comment
Doctrix Periwinkle's avatar

What a cool post. I really appreciate your updating this with new data!

Expand full comment
2 more comments...

No posts