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International Films Find Life At The US Box Office
Sentimental Value // Courtesy of Neon
International films are having a moment, with another non-English title potentially poised to take home Best Picture at the next Academy Awards.
The Big Picture: Global cinema has never been more popular with American audiences. What was once a niche interest for cinephiles has gone mainstream, signaling just how globalized movie distribution has become. While Hollywood blockbusters have been one of America’s top exports for nearly a century, the growing popularity of foreign films could create Hollywood-like hubs in countries such as South Korea, Mexico, and Norway.
Behind The Screen: While major studios are producing fewer movies than in decades past, international projects are filling the gaps — and the filmmaking community is applauding their rise, per Bloomberg.
In 2020, South Korea’s Parasite, directed by Bong Joon Ho, became the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture, grossing $53.7 million in the US and Canada.
Before 2017, only 10 non-English films had ever been nominated for the award. Since then, 12 have — thanks to more international members joining the Academy and expanded nomination slots.
And that number will likely increase this year, with Norway’s Sentimental Value already touted as a Best Picture frontrunner.
Additionally, the Tehran-shot It Was Just an Accident, Brazil’s The Secret Agent, and South Korea’s No Other Choice are all getting major critical love.
Closing Credits: Audiences have also embraced international cinema because of three key forces: streaming, which has boosted visibility for global projects; trendy distributors like Neon, A24, and MUBI, which have used innovative marketing to sell these films; and Letterboxd, which has become a surprisingly powerful social tastemaker.
Oh, and Gen Z is using subtitles now for even English-language movies… so there goes that barrier to entry.
Coming Soon: There’s been a growing number of multilingual projects coming out of Hollywood, so expect the next era of globetrotting blockbusters to better reflect the world — with characters actually speaking their real languages.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.