In 2018, global box office revenue amounted to 41.1 billion U.S. dollars, marking an increase from the previous year. This is a trend which has been ongoing for over a decade, with 2005’s figure of 23.1 billion having grown by around one to two billion per year. Box office revenue from the United States and Canada accounted for 11.89 billion dollars of the global total, significantly more than any other world region. In fact, countries ranked in the top five leading box office markets in the world (including the United Kingdom and South Korea) contributed less than two billion dollars each to the worldwide figure. This is not to say however that markets outside of Hollywood fail to produce quality cinema – one look at the Indian film industry, specifically Bollywood, reveals just how successful movies produced outside North America can be.

Insights: international cinema

Movie fans who branch out beyond North American productions will know that there is so much more to cinema than Hollywood. Whilst such films are shown in movie theaters across the globe and arguably attract more commercial success and popularity than productions from other countries, it never hurts to explore beyond the mainstream.

All across the world and especially within Europe, American movies permeate and often dominate box offices as fans expect the opportunity to see global hits like ‘Incredibles 2’ or the latest Marvel movie. Admittedly demand for non-English language movies is far lower and tend not to draw in such large audiences, but still have the potential to be successful. Among the highest grossing non-English language films at the box office in the UK and Republic of Ireland are several movies hailing from China and Spain, including ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ and Guillermo del Toro’s creation ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’. Also in the ranking is Pedro Almodóvar’s 2006 release ‘Volver’ starring Spanish actress Penélope Cruz, who broke into Hollywood after achieving recognition for her performances in ‘Vanilla Sky’ and ‘Blow’.

Outside the movie theater, another avenue through which international movies can achieve success is by being shown at film festivals. Finnish full-length feature ‘A Moment in the Reeds’ was shown 64 times at international film festivals, and hundreds of other productions feature in programs at festivals all around the world every year. One of the most famous film festivals in the world is the Festival de Cannes Film Festival, which is considered highly prestigious and has been running since the 1930s.