Examining International Country-to-Country Flow of Theatrical Films

Abstract

The present study examined the country-to-country flow of theatrical films. We hypothesize that a country's level of film imports is influenced by the domestic cinema market size of the exporter, and cultural and linguistic ties between the 2 countries. Regression models tested a dataset drawn from UNESCO's data on annual film imports from major cinema-exporting markets. Results revealed that trade traffic rises with exporters' and importers' home cinema economies, but is lessened by cultural distance between them. The test of the interactional effect of market size and cultural distance, however, reveals that the film flow's cultural discount was significantly moderated by the exporter's market size, which advances the literature. Finally, the flow escalates when both sides speak a common language.