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.
> a je ne sais quoi that the major American directors lack would need to be further specified
I agree with this. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that makes foreign directors more appealing (to non-Americans) than American directors. I can only speculate (for now?) that it might be related to their culture.
(Also, in an older article (https://www.mangosorbananas.com/i/143303820/about-car-chases-and-monsters) I posted a table showing that a large fraction of the higher international-to-domestic ratio movies belong to the action and children (with lots of generic humor that's harder to lose in translation?) genres)
> not whichever director was hired to direct that specific franchise installment
I agree if we are talking about their conscious decision to watch film X.
> Perhaps making it to Hollywood for a foreign director requires more initiative and skill than reaching it as an American director.
This is a very important caveat. It might just be that non-American directors are a highly selected group. I do have a comment though.
If they are highly motivated and skilled - more so than American directors who haven't gotten through the same filter - then why do they sell relatively less in the American market?(remember these are ratios. Though I should probably look at whether they sell less or more in absolute terms in the domestic market). I think I can strengthen your argument by transforming it into "Hollywood hires (some) foreign directors because they are more skilled at attracting foreign audiences, increasing total revenue" (would you agree to that?).
That brings me back to "I should probably look at whether they sell less or more in absolute terms in the domestic market". If their absolute domestic numbers are roughly the same (or more) as those for American directors that would shift my position towards yes, they're probably highly selected.
Yes, I agree with your comment. It would be interesting to look at how American directors do compared to foreign directors in the domestic market box office. I have a feeling that say in the 90s, when comedy and mid-budget movies had a larger share of the box office, American directors might have brought in more money than they do today because they specialized in movies that only did good business domestically. As of the last 15 years, that type of movie has become less important commercially, but it would be interesting to see if American directors have still grossed significantly more than foreign directors in the U.S. market.
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.
> a je ne sais quoi that the major American directors lack would need to be further specified
I agree with this. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that makes foreign directors more appealing (to non-Americans) than American directors. I can only speculate (for now?) that it might be related to their culture.
(Also, in an older article (https://www.mangosorbananas.com/i/143303820/about-car-chases-and-monsters) I posted a table showing that a large fraction of the higher international-to-domestic ratio movies belong to the action and children (with lots of generic humor that's harder to lose in translation?) genres)
> not whichever director was hired to direct that specific franchise installment
I agree if we are talking about their conscious decision to watch film X.
> Perhaps making it to Hollywood for a foreign director requires more initiative and skill than reaching it as an American director.
This is a very important caveat. It might just be that non-American directors are a highly selected group. I do have a comment though.
If they are highly motivated and skilled - more so than American directors who haven't gotten through the same filter - then why do they sell relatively less in the American market?(remember these are ratios. Though I should probably look at whether they sell less or more in absolute terms in the domestic market). I think I can strengthen your argument by transforming it into "Hollywood hires (some) foreign directors because they are more skilled at attracting foreign audiences, increasing total revenue" (would you agree to that?).
That brings me back to "I should probably look at whether they sell less or more in absolute terms in the domestic market". If their absolute domestic numbers are roughly the same (or more) as those for American directors that would shift my position towards yes, they're probably highly selected.
Yes, I agree with your comment. It would be interesting to look at how American directors do compared to foreign directors in the domestic market box office. I have a feeling that say in the 90s, when comedy and mid-budget movies had a larger share of the box office, American directors might have brought in more money than they do today because they specialized in movies that only did good business domestically. As of the last 15 years, that type of movie has become less important commercially, but it would be interesting to see if American directors have still grossed significantly more than foreign directors in the U.S. market.
What a cool post. I really appreciate your updating this with new data!