Global Hollywood

Why is Hollywood so successful? Overwhelming almost every other national cinema in its own back yard and virtually extinguishing foreign cinema in the multicultural United States, Hollywood seems everywhere all powerful. This book addresses the vacuum left by textual analysis in examining this success. Turning to political economy, cultural studies, and cultural policy analysis to highlight the material factors underlining this apparent artistic success, Global Hollywood considers such factors as the numerous hidden subsidies to the U.S. film industry and copyright limitations, which prevent the free flow of information. Most of all by relocating cultural production and through its relationship to world markets more generally, contemporary Hollywood has transformed itself to attain ever greater global clout and reach. The authors also address the key areas of copyright, marketing, distribution, and exhibition that are cornerstones of the global industry apparatus. Challenging the simplicities of the cultural imperialist model and Hollywood's free market rhetoric, this book is the first academic study to retheorize the continued and expanding success of the Hollywood cinema factory.