The Great Lie: ‘Americanism’ Doesn’t Sell Overseas
by John Nolte
If you think the national news media is biased, spend some time rummaging through the world of entertainment news. Today’s L.A. Times piece about the marketing of “G.I. Joe” has an especially priceless whopper:
Yet overseas, where big action films often earn 60% or more of their ticket sales, rah-rah American sentiment doesn’t play well. So those references have vanished from the advertising.
The Great Lie told by Leftist Hollywood and the media who shill for them is that in order to make money the likes and dislikes of an “international” audience must be considered, and international audiences loathe Americanism.
Let’s see how that’s working out with some overseas numbers for a few “big action films.”
To excuse the stripping of Superman’s Americanism (and masculinity), a lot of fanfare was made over the need for “Superman Returns” to appeal to the foreign box office, and yet the film bombed both here and abroad, making only $191 million overseas.
Compare that to the international box-office for Sam Raimi’s ”Spider-Man” trilogy, which never shied from its hero’s unique Americanism or an iconic shot of the stars and stripes:
Spider-Man: $418 million
Spider-Man II: $410 million
Spider-Man III: $554 million
Some will argue ”Spider-Man” doesn’t quite qualify as “rah-rah.” If Hollywood actually produced true “rah-rah” there might be stronger examples, but here’s the international box-office for some “big action” films from the last fifteen years unafraid, and in some cases proud, of their Americanism:
National Treasure: $174 million
National Treasure II: $237 million
Pearl Harbor: $251 million
Armageddon: $352 million
Independence Day: $511 million
I Am Legend: $329 million
Hancock: $396 million
Hollywood’s concern over “international box office” holds even less water when looked at another way. If overseas box-office is such an important factor, can someone explain this years-long glut of anti-American films we find ourselves in?
At best, Leftists can argue “pro rah-rah” is a box-office wash outside the states, but “anti-rah-rah” has zero appeal to international audiences, and yet Hollywood refuses to stop making them. Here are the overseas numbers for those with so-called “bankable” stars attached:
Lions for Lambs: $43 million
In the Valley of Elah: $22 million
Rendition: $17 million
Stop-Loss: $291 thousand
Body of Lies: $75 million
A Mighty Heart: $9 million
Grace is Gone: $887 thousand
Don’t confuse my argument here. I am not saying ”rah-rah American sentiment” does sell overseas What I’m arguing is that it’s wholly dishonest for anyone to flatly and matter-of-factly state it does not.
If a “big action” movie kicks ass, no one cares about “American sentiment.” Except, of course, the anti-American Leftists currently controlling the levers of media and entertainment power; those who know very well ”rah-rah” does increase ticket sales here in the states. After all, the entire ”G.I. Joe” marketing campaign is counting on it.
This myth about international box-office was created to give Hollywood a “business” excuse when they refuse to portray America in a positive light or turn Superman into a flying symbol of United Nations conflicted meterosexuality. The unquestioning entertainment media jumps right on board because it’s yet another way for them to spread dishonest propaganda regarding America’s unpopularity overseas.
Except at the box office, it’s a win-win.
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82 Comments
Great post Mr Nolte.
Had GI Joe been a "A REAL AMERICAN HERO" I would be there day one for this movie but with an obvious Anti-American bent I won't be there and I really hope the movie flaps.
GI Joe changed over the years from a World War II and Cold War icon (Air Force uniforms) who was 11 inches tall (why never a foot?) into what he became and what the movie became, American at its core, but with a worldly inclusiveness. I'm just sayin…
I'll probably wait 'til it's on Dish, but I will see it.
The real shame of it is if the movie bombs, and I hope it does, they'll claim that as proof that "rah rah American sentiment" doesn't sell. They won't acknowledge that their wishy-washy approach to the material and watering things down to appeal to their perception of what the international audience wants had anything to do with it performing poorly at the box office.
I didn't like the transformer movie either, so I won't go to this one anyway. Movies seem to be getting worse overall, or maybe I'm getting jaded as I hit the ancient age of the mid-forties.
As an Australian I agree, I would rather see a pro-American film then the anti-American crap Hollywood has been dishing up for a few years.
Some of the 'rah-rah American sentiment' in some movies can go overboard and most Australians don't understand it. We are quite laid back when it comes to pride in our country and you'd never see that in an Australian movie, saying that though, the vast majority of Australia movies are garbage.
If an American movie does go overboard with the 'rah-rah American sentiment' most non-Americans either roll their eyes, ignore it or just see it for what it is, Americans loving their country.
Well, they should send all of our movies over seas…… after Obama was over there apologizing for us.. everyone in the world should love us now….
Who cares about the rah rah sentiment, either the movies are good or they suck!!!! and the second batch of movies that you referred to all really suck!!!
sometimes numbers don't lie…
And this time they don't. Hollywood has now entered a pahse where foreign reciepts are more important than pleasing middle America. And,if you know how the biz works you might understand… 'Elah' and 'Lions/Lambs' are given handsome budgets, very little appears on the screen, it all goes into the recipient's pockets before the film breaks, they live comfortably while the producers makes some on foreign sales.
They don't give a rat's rear end about us, and the ideological lockstep is more important than robust returns.
If 'Transformers II' makes enough they can produce a dozen 'Redacted's …
And they have…
"GI Joe" is "Americanism"? …or perhaps it is more accurately: "American Militarism"?
Look at those groups of movies again. Are we to understand that the main defining difference between "I am Legend" and "Grace is gone" (whatever that is)… is "Americanism"!?!?!
That's funny: American movies have ALWAYS done well all over the world. Then suddenly over a decade ago, the "film industry' started pushing the idea that American movies don't do well internationally, despite the fact that the whole world knows and loves Indiana Jones, Rambo, Dirty Harry, Luke Skywalker, etc.
Not sure when people on both the left and right will put the undeniable facts together and understand the reality of the situation:
The rest of world doesn't hate America.
The LEFT of the world hates America.
from what we can see 'GI Joe' is neither…
just mindless noise for the ADD set. It's a shame that William Wyler's brillian 'The Story of GI Joe' about Ernie Pyle has even a passing name resemblance. Very little 'American' at all here…
from what we can see 'GI Joe' is neither…
just mindless noise for the ADD set. It's a shame that William Wyler's brilliant 'The Story of GI Joe' about Ernie Pyle has even a passing name resemblance. Very little 'American' at all here…
Unfortunately the left has a stranglehold on the movies. So we're left having to search for any positives about America in every movie.
It's just very telling that the clear Anti-America movies tank everywhere, and the ones with even a tiny hint of a positive America do well.
A while back I saw an article which said that for the first time in history, European audiences for Hollywood films are now larger than American audiences. This glaring fact is so in your face obvious that Hollywood now disgusts the average American viewer. My question is – how much more of the American audience has to boycott Hollywood films before the industry finally gets a clue. If Matt Damon's pending anti-American film is any clue, they sure as hell haven't got it now.
VERY interesting dcase. Is Ernie related to "Gomer" by chance? Seems like too much coincidence.
anyway, I hadn't ever heard of Wyler's novel. I presume it coined the nickname of the posterboy for our soldiers? Thank you for that bit of knowledge. I'll have a look into that.
Although I know in advance I will be disappointed by no appearance of C.O.B.R.A.
Quick, tell the shareholders this.
Yahoo Serious single-handedly destroyed the Australian film industry. You have no credibility now.
Don't forget The Dark Knight and it's billion grossed across the globe!
no, Ernie Pyle was a famous correspondent back when they actually went into the field with the troops. It's his memoirs (played by Burgess Meredith) and directed by Wyler. Good stuff. And yes, no COBRA…
When I was in Prague, some locals I met were very taken with "Pulp Fiction". Its interesting how the world sees America through our movies.
===Yet overseas, where big action films often earn 60% or more of their ticket sales, rah-rah American sentiment doesn’t play well. So those references have vanished from the advertising.===
These vapid clowns have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Americanism is not only loved overseas it is demanded. From Levis jeans, to our fast food to our pop-culture products such as music and movies, it all sells and is very popular.
What about IronMan, any of the DieHard movies, The Dark Knight, even Forrest Gump
the shareholders have not been happy…
Unfortunately the studios are part of corporate conglomerates so it isn't a pass/fail on the film businees alone…
A big thing with Ernie Pyle, he was somewhat or a lefty… but the big thing there he was ACTUALLY a soldier……. I read his biography a while back and was astonished by how much of a lefty he actually was… he loved sticking it to the man!!!!
[...] the original post here: The Great Lie: ‘Americanism’ Doesn’t Sell Overseas This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]
I miss Duke Wayne and Real America
true, as was Bill Mauldin the other WWII chronicler of significant note. Still, Pyle's work was stellar…
I just paid for another clunker..
The problem with Hollywood trying to make action movies like this while at the same time maintain their idea of, at best moral equivalency and at worst hostility towards traditional American ideals, is sooner or later you run into the problem of "Who are these guys fighting for and why are they doing it?"
The original G.I. Joe is based on American ideals, just the way the other major superheroes (i.e. — the only ones people really know) were and the same way James Bond was based on Ian Flemming's belief in upholding the ideals of Great Britain. If you strip away the American aspects of the character(s), even if you put them into a "supervillain" context when you don't have to connect them to any real world evil (Islamic terrorists, leftist dictators, etc.) you still have to give them some sort of core cultural ideals to defend, not weak mush connected to some pseudo-United Nations type fighting force, because nobody takes the idea that the world speaks with one mind on truth, justice and liberty seriously. The U.N. stands for mindless non-productive bickering — that's worth fighting for?
Lose the context of why you're fighting, and you end up with niche movies (or graphic novels) like "The Watchmen", which might excite a certain percentage of the fan base, but is never going to convey the type of good-vs.-evil message an action film has to have to be successful at the box office, because whatever hopeful message there is is ambiguous at best. And while leftists want to spread their ideology, in the case of movies like this, the end goal is to capitalize on the characters' name and make enough money to turn this into a continuing series. You can't do the former and expect the latter to happen.
As poor as the anti-war receipts were, they may actually have beens slightly more than the putrid domestic gross for most of those stinkers.
John – get cracking, bud and review G.I. Joe!
As I mentioned in another thread on this topic here, I still haven't seen Superman Returns and I won't be waiting for reviews before I decide whether I want to see this movie or not.
We have found this to be 100% true in the low budget world as well. The only reason the foreign buyers buy American films is because of their inherent "Americanism". They don't want films shot in their countries. They want to see New York, LA, Chicago etc. They also like the "look" of American actors. Baywatch is their gold standard.
When it comes to dramas or romantic comedies, their sensibilities are very different than ours. Quite candidly, their "art" films are visually superior to American Sundance fare, so why would they pay more to buy our stuff?
I actually made a direct to video film about American efforts to stop Al-Qaeda. It was very pro-American, sort of like an R rated 24 complete with Navy Seals gunning down terrorists and even featured scenes of waterboarding. Guess what? It sold overseas like hot cakes!
Pyles work was second to none!!!
If we're so horrible, then why are millions of Mexicans breaking the law just to get in here? It can't only be that Mexico sucks worse — apparently there's something we offer that their homeland does not.
The foreign market WAS critical to Hollywood, that is under a huge threat. First, Piracy means that say, "American Gangster" was on sale a week before it opened theatrically on pirated DVDs in LA and Shanghai — for a dollar! The transition to digital instead of film prints simply makes piracy easier. Already foreign theatrical distributors are drying up and going out of business, killing the indie film industry which now cannot get pre-sales even with big stars like Johnny Depp. Because there are far fewer distributors. It's becoming increasingly difficult in major markets like China, Russia, India, and Brazil to make money with piracy pressure on profits.
Second, the global downturn means that places with less piracy (the EU, Japan) have harder pressed consumers with less willingness to spend money. So there's no win there — only in piracy-infested BRIC countries (Brazil, India, China, Russia) is there gdp growth. Hollywood bet the farm on a global economic expansion that would never end and that's now come up snake eyes. Hopefully some alternate center will emerge soon and destroy Hollywood the way Toyota and Honda helped destroy Detroit.
Funny little piece of trivia: The weekend Rendition opened, it got beat out by a RERELEASE of Nightmare Before Christmas, ha ha!
There was an easy solution to all of this that would have made everyone happy. Just remake MegaForce. It was some sort of global anti-terrorist force with flying motorcycles and slick spandax jumpsuits…eh are you sure this isn't a remake of MegaForce?
Syriana was the movie that made me swear off Hollywood movies forever (with the rare exceptions, like "300"). I couldn't understand how American film makers could make a movie about the Middle East where the villains were Texas oil men and the CIA, and the heroes were Hezbollah suicide bombers. Didn't any of those people have even a glimmer of patriotism left in their souls? Then I heard an interview with a Hollywood producer who said that they were indeed focusing movies on the international market. I haven't been to a movie theater since. (Well, since "300", anyway.) Thank God for Netflix. And mostly the movies I rent there are classics like "La Dolce Vita."
I can think of at least one recent instance where the narrative was changed to appeal to U.S. audiences. In "Master and Commander," the enemy ship — the 44-gun "super" frigate — was made into a French ship, while in the incident from one of the books that served as source material, I believe it was an American ship.
Smart marketing choice: Russell Crowe or no, I can't imagine American movie-goers would have been too keen on rooting for Cap't Jack to sink the USS Constitution or one of its real or imagined sister ships.
Well said! Great post!
Hey, I watched the 2009 Tour de France. The French press did everything they could to malign Lance Armstrong. But guess what, the French people would have nothing to do with it. They came out by the thousands to cheer the American hero to a third place finish and a spot on the podium. I for one still believe America is loved around most of the world. It's our own press that hates the United States of America.
The foreign press tends to hate us as well. When I lived in the UK I'd read all of the stories about how bad the USA was (well until Obama, and then we were tolerable). The funny thing was that the regular Brits loved the US, (especially Florida), and many many of them thought my American accent was so "Posh."
You could cut ignorance like this with a knife, if that was your idea of a good time…
Master and Commander is one of my favorite films. It probably would not have if it had been an American warship that Captain Jack was blowing to bits. When they describe what the phantom ship is, a 44 gun frigate, that was exactly the ships the US Navy was building around that time. They left the ship exactly the same but made it French but mentioned it had been Yankee built which is at least pausible. As you say smart move on the movie makers part and rare, going out their way not to offend Americans.
Great to hear. Yep, it's the regular people around the world and in this country that understands America.
how so?
"It sold overseas like hot cakes!"
Yes, to Taliban audiences.
Agreed. I was going to post the same thing.
While there was nothing overtly pro-American in TDK, the underlying theme of the movie was absolutely pro-American.
Yeah, there's not much love out there for the French Navy (or the French in general). But I admire les marins francais for two of their actions:
1) The Battle of Capes, when in an extremely rare victory over the Royal Navy, they ensured that Cornwallis was trapped at Yorktown
and
2) when they sank that Greenpeace boat.
Well, the series was about the Napoleonic wars, so making it a French ship wasn't much of a stretch.
I guess I'm confused. If what we've got isn't selling, why's everybody moving here? (and others getting their hearts, cancers, etc. fixed). Serves me right. I voted for McCain and got a dope for a vice president.
I actually lived in Australia for three months and by sheer luck saw "Crocodile Dundee" there before it came out in the States and I knew the minute the credits rolled that it would be a huge hit both in the U.S. and abroad. Not because it was "Rah Rah Australia," but because it was quietly confident that its uniquely Australian charm and "authenticity" would appeal to people all over the world.
Naturally, I put "authenticity" in scare quotes because I'm well aware that not every Australian is like Croc Dundee — far from it. My point is that "Crocodile Dundee" was NOT ashamed of its own unique Australian identity and charm and was, in fact, a success mainly because of those elements.
So… what you're telling me is that films predominantly featuring stunts, pyrotechnics and fight-sequences draw a bigger audience than downbeat, niche-market dramas? Wicked shock'a, as we say in my neighborhood
It does, of course, behoove me to point out that of all the films you list (with the exception of "National Treasure" which is at least 'patriotic' in the same sense that the Hardy Boys adventures were 'police procedurals'…) the ONLY ONE with a legitimately "pro-American" scene in it is in your "bad" list: "A Mighty Heart," i.e. the scene in which Jolie's character ejects a pair of reporters after learning they work for an anti-American news outlet, admonishing the others present to "not let anti-American people near here!" and that "Daniel is an American!"
Exactly! I lived in France for a year and take it from me, the French LOVE to bitch and moan about America — all the while wearing Levi's, smoking Marlboro's, eating Big Mac's, etc., etc.
Another brilliant post by Dirty Harry.
You know, it should be common sense. Go to match.com or one of the other dating sites. The number one thing women are looking for in a man is someone who's self-confident, who believes in himself, etc.
Same goes with nations. Few people fall in love with a self-loathing country like, say, Belgium.
It's very funny that when a any of these anti-war films bombs (knock me over with a feather, something I Iike to say) the excuse we always get is that it was a "niche film". Of course what no can explain is why Hollywood continues to crank out niche films that don't seem to have a niche.
You showed a few of the movies in that list that I watch once in a while because of the way America is portrayed and isn't afraid of showing unabashed Americanism. The National Treasure movies with Nick Cage and Jon Voigt actually weave in some fiction with actual history and that's what makes the movies so successful. I think people overseas crave that type of information even if it's in the form of entertainment because the story of America is one that every American should be proud of. We live in the most free society of any country on earth however that freedom is slowly being taken away especially with the current occupant of the White House.
yep. I just googled it. Sounds like interesting stuff. I'm pretty sure tho that they named Gomer Pyle as a tribute to Ernie- I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it?
That GI Joe is about the real American soldier and hero.
The other GI Joe is a kids toy. I mean, seriously. Its a kids toy drapped with a lot of well intended "good guy-ness", but its also been so evolved by the Hasbro Corporation in ever-more elaborate ways to capture kids' interest, that this analysis and discussion is rediculous.
GI Joe 2009: Transglobal World Police (oooh such a big controversy).
GI Joe 1979: "Super GI-Joe". An intergalactic adventurer who fought space lizards. What was that about?! I don't know, I don't care.
"I have been held at gunpoint by a Shi'ite youth in West Beirut who told me in one breath that America was 'pig Satan devil' and that he planned to go to dental school in Michigan as soon as he got his green card. In Ulundi, in South Africa, I talked to a young man who, as usual, blamed apartheid on the United States. However, he had just visited the U.S. with a church group and also told me, 'Everything is so wonderful there. The race relations are so good. And everyone is rich.' Just what part of America had he visited, I asked. 'The South Side of Chicago,' he said."
–P.J. O'Rourke
I'm still in my twenties, and I completely agree with you. Films continue to get worse by the year.
HEAR HEAR Scott to still being able to love ones country.
I'll have to agree with sharpshiny Crocodile Dundee was a great movie and one I still watch to this day and enjoy every minute of it.
Ahem, Gallipoli? A finer piece of nationalism than any movie this country has produced within my lifetime, that's for sure.
Yeah, but let´s keep some perspective here. Nobody in Japan or Belgium will have made that connection. That went right over their heads.
Participant Productions, that´s why. Founded by Jeff Skoll, eBay billionaire and Canadian. Go to their website, see what they have done. It´s a political outfit making movies to bring about social change. That´s their mission statement.
http://www.participantmedia.com/films.php
No, but if they appreciated the theme of the film, then they unknowingly showed that "Americanism" can sell oversees.
The box office prospects of "I am Legend" and "Grace is gone" were always going to be extremely different. And arguably anti-American big budget actioners like the "Bourne" movies or "The Day after Tomorrow" were hugely successful.
But the idea that you have to make anti-American movies, or at least de-emphasize "Americanness", to make big budget movies work in foreign markets is nonsense. For decades, audiences around the world flocked to see movies that were specifically American, made for American audiences. Take "Gone with the Wind" – a world as distant from modern Europe as it can be but it´s on tv there all the time. I know several European ladies who watch it at least once a year. Another example would be "Die Hard". The villains are all arrogant foreigners. Didn´t hurt it one bit. Foreigners watch westerns, vietnam movies or depression-era crime dramas. If you add some America-bashing they will believe you and think less of America, but there is no evidence that they will spend more money on your product.
If only. Megaforce was BAD, but by George it was anti-communist and I salute the filmmakers for that.
"Bad" bad, or "so bad it should have ended up on MST3K" bad?
he was named after a writer- Gomer Cool and actor Denver Pyle- and modeled after an incompetent service station attendant one of Andy Griffith's writers encountered.
In the Vietnam war US pilots referred to enemy pilots as 'Gomers'…
there you have it. And you are correct about the GI Joe movie nonsense; this from a conservative veteran…
What really GETS me about all this! ("This" being the topic of Hollywood's antagonism towards Americanism.) What really gets met about all this is… if we could, as a nation, pull together for (let's say) just five years… pool our energies, our optimism, our national pride and spirit, our creative genius… and if we could rally the international community (and, by that, I am referring to the civilized West)… and if we could all stand, shoulder-to-shoulder, and kick the living crap out of Ahmedinejad & Company… DANG!!! How cool would that be!?
We have the power to do this. We have military technical superiority. And, if we could act as a unit, we could have the personnel to DEMAND those pathetic, backwards, stuck-in-the-12th-century caliphates to buckle.
Instead… we dither. We wring our hands over the slightest of offenses. We beat our own breasts; "We are so sorry for all the woe that we have brought into the world." We whine about our wealth. We cry because of inequitable access to high-end medical technologies. We stammer over which words I should use in referring to certain minority populations. We rewrite history, so that NO founding father is truly worthy of honor, and few generals really merit our respect. We shy away from telling the socialists that they're socialists. We actually give air-time to the likes of Henry Louis Gates.
And on and on and on it goes.
AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Eagerly awaiting the New Hollywood.
p.s. I am reading a book on the D-Day invasion (June 6, 1944). And, MAN!! There are about 20 movie-ready story lines coming out of that brief 24 hours of history. If only there were a pair of testicles in Hollywood to actually transfer them to film.
GI Joe movie director says it’s not a Bush movie b…
Update: Big Hollywood makes a brief comment on this, and John Nolte talks about the phony claim that Americanism doesn’t sell overseas….
Love that movie, that's why I said 'vast majority', not all.
I also like Crocodile Dundee (as sharpshiny says it isn't a true representative of Australians but it is a good movie), Breaker Morant, Mad Max and its sequels, Phar Lap (bloody Yanks killing our horse), Malcolm, Crackerjack, The LIghthorsemen. There are others, but most are crap.
Australia has a cultural cringe, you would go a long way to see a real 'rah rah Australia' film.
I liked Crocodile Dundee (the squeals got worse as the went on), it doesn't represent the average Australia, but it speaks to what a lot of Australians wish they were. Plus it is a very good movie.
Ernie Pyle is enough of an iconic hero, a real one, that your ignorant joking is something rather similar in effect to pulling down your pants and urinating in public.
Just so's you know.
[...] Deutsch is also propagandizing from the very beginning with that “salt on the fire” nonsense about Americanism not selling overseas. We know that’s not true. [...]
MST3K bad. Well, a ten year old may have gotten something out of it at the time. You can find clips on youtube.
Superman Returns was a dreary, joyless movie. Foreign audiences agreed. It´s no coincidence that they threw the fun out with the flag waving.
[...] Hollywood’s John Nolte gave that theory a thorough fisking, providing numbers showing that while “rah-rah America” movies aren’t guaranteed [...]
[...] Compare that to the international box-office for Sam Raimi’s ”Spider-Man” trilogy, which never shied from its hero’s unique Americanism or an iconic shot of the stars and stripes: Spider-Man: $418 million [...]
I liked Crocodile Dundee (the squeals got worse as the went on), it doesn't represent the average Australia, but it speaks to what a lot of Australians wish they were.
"what Australians wish they were"
That's no different to the way many here feel about Cowboys. So in a slim way Crocodile Dundee it IS "rah-rah , Oz" .
*MissQuinn*
Swing and a miss, CD. . .post proof or retract. :p
*MissQuinn*
[...] Compare that to the international box-office for Sam Raimi’s ”Spider-Man” trilogy, which never shied from its hero’s unique Americanism or an iconic shot of the stars and stripes: Spider-Man: $418 million [...]
[...] Over at Big Hollywood, in response to this topic, resident film critic John Nolte prepared the following list of anti-American flops. [...]
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