Hollywood Works to Maintain Its World Dominance

As roughly 8,000 foreign and domestic film buyers, sellers and producers converge in Santa Monica at the annual American Film Market, domestic film officials will be worrying mostly about subtle shifts and distant footsteps in an international industry that is still dominated by American studios, talent and tastes.

According to Rentrak’s box-office tracking service, United States companies and their partners backed the top 20 performers at the world box office every year for the last five. A rare standout was “Intouchables” in 2012, from France, ranked 16th, with $432.6 million in global sales, just behind Universal Pictures’ British-created “Les Misérables,” with $442 million. In all, markets outside the United States accounted for roughly $25 billion of $35.9 billion in worldwide box-office sales in 2013, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Precisely what share of international sales was captured by American-based companies is unclear, but they remained dominant.