In some surprising news, foreign films took over the box office in early December as Godzilla Minus One, Animal, and The Boy and The Heron made a nice mark in the North American box office. Now, no one expects these films to go on and become billion-dollar features. However, it’s a nice deviation to see foreign films put a stamp on the American market. Before the pandemic hit the world in 2020, it was extremely rare to see such a remarkable feat.
Parasite was all the rage in 2019, but there hasn’t been much presence of foreign films in the domestic market since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon came out in 2000. To see many foreign films thriving in America is an important win for the film industry. It allows audiences to be accustomed to different worlds and experience filmmaking on a storytelling level that’s yet to reach Tinseltown.
Studios Would Purposely Buy Foreign Films To Remake Them
Before 2020, studios were notorious for buying the rights to foreign films and remaking them for American audiences. The Departed, Old Boy, Let The Right One In, Parent Trap, The Ring, Death Note, and Brothers are just a short list of films that were remade for the North American audience. There’s no denying that some of these remakes are truly brilliant in their own right. However, the key factor is that these remakes strip the identity of their foreign counterpart. We miss out on the unique aspects of their culture, people, and the overall general worldview.
This is a huge reason why anime remakes are such a failure. Anime remakes are written with a Western society in mind. The Japanese culture itself is a character, and stripping anime of that important characterization has made these anime features such a bland and forgettable cash grab that they lose the spirit of their original property. Foreign films weren’t particularly hard to come by, but they were never promoted by Hollywood themselves. Hell, Hollywood didn’t promote Godzilla Minus One, Animal, and The Boy and The Heron either.
Netflix Changed The Game Thanks To Their Focus On Foreign Entertainment
Netflix is a big part of the reason modern audiences have become more interested in watching foreign entertainment. Granted, foreign films would break through the Hollywood system here and there, but the streaming service introduced us to content such as Lupin, Money Heist, Peaky Blinders, and of course, Squid Game.
The service has tried to take a stab at the remake game as well. Death Note is the most notable thing out of this, and it turned out to be a massive failure. The entire film itself didn’t seem to understand the source material; it wasn’t just the fact that it was stripped of one of its most important traits – the culture. But character dynamics were wrong and misguided. The story felt more like a Final Destination knockoff. But the show mentioned above wasn’t created for American audiences. That allowed us to be immersed in these unique environments that gave us stories that we’d never seen before.
Plus, it helped audiences get accustomed to subtitles (let’s be honest, dubbed is usually terrible) and storytelling that doesn’t follow the traditional path that most Hollywood films tend to do. Netflix‘s dedication to foreign content has helped expand the foreign market on the stateside, which opens the doors for both filmmakers and fans.
Foreign Content Is The Key To True Diversity In Hollywood
Hollywood has had a huge shift in the last couple of years due to their sudden focus on diversity. That’s a great thing since there are plenty of actors of color or foreign names that are just as talented as some of Tinseltown’s best. But Hollywood’s mission to diversify their entertainment has felt forced and hollow for the most part. It doesn’t feel authentic because the voices behind the scenes don’t particularly have a clue about anything outside the North American market.
Foreign content succeeding on American soil will allow Hollywood to finally take a chance on talent outside of their little bubble. This means more foreign filmmakers will be given a chance to show their natural voice, which allows for organic and diverse stories. This also means that the North American market needs to step their game up and deliver content that’s fresh and exciting. The most notable issue with 2023 is that most well-known blockbusters and sequels bombed at the box office. This is a clear sign that audiences are tired of the same old material. It’s time to bring in some fresh blood, and it’s great to see that foreign films may be the answer to that solution.
Follow Us
