Hollywood dominance : will it continue?

Hollywood has dominated the global film business since the First World War. Economic formulas used by governments to assess levels of industry dominance typically measure market share to establish the degree of industry concentration. The business literature reveals that a marketing orientation strongly correlates with superior market performance and that market leaders that possess a set of six superior marketing capabilities are able to continually outperform rival firms. This paper argues that the historical evidence shows that the Hollywood Majors have consistently outperformed rival firms and rival film industries in each of those six marketing capabilities and that unless rivals develop a similarly integrated and cohesive strategic marketing management approach to the movie business and match the Major studios’ superior capabilities, then Hollywood’s dominance will continue. This paper also proposes that in cyberspace, whilst the Internet does provide a channel that democratises film distribution, the flat landscape of the world wide web means that in order to stand out from the clutter of millions of cyber-voices seeking attention, independent film companies need to possess superior strategic marketing management capabilities and develop effective e-marketing strategies to find a niche, attract a loyal online audience and prosper. However, mirroring a recent CIA report forecasting a multi-polar world economy, this paper also argues that potentially serious longer-term rivals are emerging and will increasingly take a larger slice of an expanding global box office as India, China and other major developing economies and their respective cultural channels grow and achieve economic parity with or surpass the advanced western economies. Thus, in terms of global market share over time, Hollywood’s slice of the pie will comparatively diminish in an emerging multi-polar movie business.

Digital dawn : a revolution in movie distribution?

How will the digital technology revolution impact the movie business? Hollywood developed a highly successful industrial system that has functioned well for almost a century in the sense that it enabled the Major film studios to largely control and dominate the industry. However, the new digital technology may now be propelling Hollywood toward the biggest technological transition since the creation of the studio system almost a century ago. For example, Major Hollywood studios are already beginning to provide video-on-demand (VOD) digital distribution of movies over the Internet. This article examines what is happening, and why. It sets out the background and the incipient changes already occurring. It makes an argument regarding the fundamental strategic dynamics, that acetate film was the key to the control of the Hollywood system, and speculates about how a shift away from acetate film to digital video may transform that system. The focus is on the impact on how the Major studios release and market their movies, and how new market and marketing opportunities for the low-budget independent filmmaking sector may arise.

iiNet’s Hollywood ending : what does its court victory mean for copyright law?

In what is being billed as iiNet versus Hollywood, the Australian internet service provider has come out an apparent winner after the High Court dismissed a copyright infringement case brought by industry movie studios. The case was a final appeal by the industry in its attempts to crack down on internet users infringing copyright by using BitTorrent to download movies.

Australian student reactions to U.S. tourism advertising : a test of advertising as public diplomacy

A study among Australian college students gauged their reactions to a television commercial produced for the U.S. Commerce Department to bolster sagging tourism numbers among international visitors. In addition to using traditional measures applied to tourism advertisements, the student also concluded items to measure attitudes toward the U.S. government and its people Pre- and post-viewing results indicated that while the Hollywood-movie-themed commercial was not well received by the Australian students as a tourism message, it did result in more favorable attitudes toward the U.S. government, though not the U.S. people. The findings lend partial support for the potential of tourism advertising efforts to exert a "bleed-over effect" in terms of their contributions to overall attitudes toward a country, regardless of whether viewers plan to visit the country whose travel advertisements they see.

Australian student reactions to US tourism advertising : a test of advertising as public diplomacy

A study among Australian college students gauged their reactions to a television commercial produced for the US Commerce Department to bolster sagging tourism numbers among international visitors. In additional to using traditional measures applied to tourism advertisements, the study also included items to measure attitudes toward the US government and its people. Pre- and post-viewing results indicated that although the Hollywood-movie-themes commercial was not well received by the Australian students as a tourism message, it did result in more favourable attitudes toward the US government, although not the US people. The findings lend partial support for the potential of tourism advertising efforts to exert a 'bleed-over effect' in terms of their contribution to overall attitudes toward a country, regardless of whether viewers plan to visit the country whose travel advertisements of which they see.

The first global entertainment company : explaining Pathe's global dominance in the pre-Hollywood film industry

For almost a decade before Hollywood existed, French firm Pathe towered over the early film industry with estimates of its share of all films sold around the world varying between 50-70%. Pathe was the first global entertainment company. This paper analyses its rise to market leadership by applying a theoretical framework drawn from the business literature on causes of industry dominance, which provides insights into how firms acquire and maintain market dominance, and in this case the film industry. This paper uses evidence presented by film historians to argue that Pathe “fits” the expected theoretical model of a dominant firm because it had a marketing orientation, used an effective quality-based competitive strategy and possessed the six critical strategic marketing capabilities that business research shows enable the best performing firms to consistently outperform rivals

Conference report: Lights, Camera, Action : Spotlight on Tourism in the New Millennium. 31st Annual Travel and Tourism Research Association Conference.

The 31st TTRA conference was held in California’s San Fernando Valley, home of Hollywood and Burbank’s movie and television studios. The twin themes of Hollywood and the new Millennium promised and delivered “something old, yet something new”. The meeting offered a historical summary, not only of the year in review but also of many features of travel research since the first literature in the field appeared in the 1970s. Also, the millennium theme set the scene for some stimulating and forward thinking discussions. The Hollywood location offered an opportunity to ponder on the value of the movie-induced tourism for Los Angeles, at a time when Hollywood Boulevard was in the midst of a much needed redevelopment programme. Hollywood Chamber of Commerce speaker Oscar Arslanian acknowledged that the face of the famous district had become tired, and that its ability to continue to attract visitors in the future lay in redeveloping its past heritage. In line with the Hollywood theme a feature of the conference was a series of six special sessions with “Stars of Travel Research”. These sessions featured: Clare Gunn, Stanley Plog, Charles Gouldner, John Hunt, Brent Ritchie, Geoffrey Crouch, Peter Williams, Douglas Frechtling, Turgut Var, Robert Christie-Mill, and John Crotts. Delegates were indeed privileged to hear from many of the pioneers of tourism research. Clare Gunn, Charles Goeldner, Turgut Var and Stanley Plog, for example, traced the history of different aspects of the tourism literature, and in line with the millennium theme, offered some thought provoking discussion on the future challenges facing tourism. These included; the commodotisation of airlines and destinations, airport and traffic congestion, environment sustainability responsibility and the looming burst of the baby-boomer bubble. Included in the conference proceedings are four papers presented by five of the “Stars”. Brent Ritchie and Geoffrey Crouch discuss the critical success factors for destinations, Clare Gunn shares his concerns about tourism being a smokestack industry, Doug Frechtling provides forecasts of outbound travel from 20 countries, and Charles Gouldner, who has attended all 31 TTRA conferences, reflects on the changes that have taken place in tourism research over 35 years...

Local Hollywood: global film production and the Gold Coast

Hollywood films and television programs are watched by a global audience. While many of these productions are still made in southern California, the last twenty years have seen new production centres emerge in the US, Canada and other locations worldwide. Global Hollywood has been made possible by this growing number of Local Hollywoods: locations equipped with the requisite facilities, resources and labour, as well as the political will and tax incentives, to attract and retain high-budget, Hollywood-standard projects. This new book gives an unprecedented insight into how the Gold Coast became the first outpost of Hollywood in Australia. When a combination of forces drove Hollywood studios and producers to work outside California, the Gold Coast's unique blend of government tax support, innovative entrepreneurs and diverse natural settings made it a perfect choice to host Hollywood productions. 'Local Hollywood' makes an essential contribution to the field of film and media studies, as well as giving film buffs a behind-the-scenes tour of the film industry.

Hollywood’s dominance : a revisionist approach

This 
paper 
is
 based
 on 
a
 PhD 
thesis
 that investigated how Hollywood’s
dominance 
of
 the
 movie
 industry 
arose
 and
 how
 it
 has
 been
 maintained
over
time.
 Major 
studio
 dominance 
and
 the 
global
 popularity 
of
Hollywood
 movies has
 been
 the 
subject
 of
 numerous 
studies. 
An interdisciplinary
 literature 
review
 of 
the
 economics,
 management,
marketing,
 film,
 media
 and
 culture 
literatures
 identified
 twenty
 different 
single 
or
multiple 
factor
 explanations
 that 
try
 to
 account
 for
Major
 studio
 dominance 
at
 different
 time
 periods
 but
 cannot
comprehensively 
explain 
how 
Hollywood
 acquired
 and 
maintained
 global
 dominance 
for
 nine
 decades. 
Existing 
strategic
 management 
and
marketing
 theories
 were 
integrated 
into
 a 
‘theoretical
 lens’
 that
 enabled
a
 historical
 analysis
 of 
Hollywood’s
 longstanding 
dominance 
of
 the
movie
 business
 to
 be 
undertaken 
from 
a
 strategic
 business
 perspective.
 This
 paper
 concludes
 that 
the
 major 
studios 
rise 
to
 market 
leadership
 and 
enduring
 dominance
 can
 primarily
 be
 explained 
because 
they
 developed
 and 
maintained 
a 
set
 of
 strategic
 marketing
 management
 capabilities 
that
 were
 superior 
to rival
 firms
 and 
rival 
film 
industries. 
It
 is
 argued that 
a 
marketing
 orientation 
and 
effective
 strategic
 marketing
management
 capabilities 
also
 provide
a 
unifying
 theory
 for
 Hollywood’s
enduring 
dominance 
because 
they
 can 
account
 for
 each
 of
 the 
twenty
 previously
 identified
 explanations 
for 
that
 dominance.



Global and local Hollywood

The term ‘Global Hollywood’ describes the international reach of the major Hollywood studios, and the internationalisation of financing, production, distribution and exhibition of films made by the majors, or by their subsidiaries and partners. In this article we describe how one place, the Gold Coast in the Australian state of Queensland, became a ‘Local Hollywood’ or a regular location for such international film and television production.

Australian horror movies

The Australian horror film is a fascinating specimen. While a tradition has antecedents in the silent era of cinema, and at times has produced popular and commercially successful titles, Australian horror films have existed among the shadows of Australian cinema. Within a national cinema funded by public subsidy to foster a sense of national identity, emphasizing ‘quality’ cultural films and refusing to recognize popular movie genres in attempt to differentiate itself from Hollywood, generic and low-culture horror films have been in opposition to these objectives. Consequently, horror movies have been heavily marginalized within public funding environments and mainstream film culture, and either ignored or despised by mainstream critics. The chapter provides a historical introduction to Australian horror cinema before reviewing a selection of recent Aussie horror titles, namely: Wolf Creek, Undead, Black Water, Dying Breed, Lost Things, Prey, Cut, Rogue and Storm Warning.

Rethinking genre studies through distribution analysis : issues in international horror movie circuits

The existence of any film genre depends on the effective operation of distribution networks. Contingencies of distribution play an important role in determining the content of individual texts and the characteristics of film genres; they enable new genres to emerge at the same time as they impose limits on generic change. This article sets out an alternative way of doing genre studies, based on an analysis of distributive circuits rather than film texts or generic categories. Our objective is to provide a conceptual framework that can account for the multiple ways in which distribution networks leave their traces on film texts and audience expectations, with specific reference to international horror networks, and to offer some preliminary suggestions as to how distribution analysis can be integrated into existing genre studies methodologies.

Towards an understanding of Australian genre cinema and entertainment : beyond the limitations of ‘Ozploitation’ discourse

While Australian cinema has produced popular movie genres since the 1970s, including action/adventure, road movies, crime, and horror movies, genre cinema has occupied a precarious position within a subsidised national cinema and has been largely written out of film history. In recent years the documentary Not Quite Hollywood (2008) has brought Australia’s genre movie heritage from the 1970s and 1980s back to the attention of cinephiles, critics and cult audiences worldwide. Since its release, the term ‘Ozploitation’ has become synonymous with Australian genre movies. In the absence of discussion about genre cinema within film studies, Ozploitation (and ‘paracinema’ as a theoretical lens) has emerged as a critical framework to fill this void as a de facto approach to genre and a conceptual framework for understanding Australian genres movies. However, although the Ozploitation brand has been extremely successful in raising the awareness of local genre flicks, Ozploitation discourse poses problems for film studies, and its utility is limited for the study of Australian genre movies. This paper argues that Ozploitation limits analysis of genre movies to the narrow confines of exploitation or trash cinema and obscures more important discussion of how Australian cinema engages with popular movies genres, the idea of Australian filmmaking as entertainment, and the dynamics of commercial filmmaking practises more generally.