Hollywood rules in Thailand.
You can see what’s playing here now at the Movie Seer website.
As for non-English foreign languages in Hollywood films being subtitled, the crappier cinema chains will subtitle them only in Thai, which can be frustrating. I can read Thai, but not that quickly! The situation has improved in recent years, though.
Oh, and as for subtitling/dubbing, some Thai cinemas will show Western films dubbed, but most have Thai subtitles.
Wait…we actually EXPORTED Boat Trip? And no one declared war on us for it?!
America makes movies with witty dialogue and complex plots, and not just a montage of CGI, slapstick, and Megan Fox?! 
OK, I kid… but that genre of movie does get the most budget and billing…
Shig’s question is fairly broad… what are some examples of recent “quality” US films (in the OP’s opinion) – it’s hard to answer without an example or two… would something like Brokeback Mountain qualify? That was in general release in NZ…
In Spain, Spanish movies often rely on word-or-mouth or blather about being “non-commercial” (read: we’re getting our salaries from government subsidies). Movies which actually get a previous publicity campaign generally do better than those which have been mentioned on TV only as “shown out of contest at the San Sebastian festival,” what a surprise.
If there is a movie you want to see and it’s not from Disney or directed to the 15-25 crowd, better go in the first week. Often, movies which do “decently” on that first week stay for several more weeks but at completely illogical hours. Showings of movies which my mother and all her friends want to see (average age 70)? Why, at 01:30 on Friday and Saturday only. Rite.
The biggest sleeper in Spanish movie history (I understand it was so both in terms of gross income and once you take inflation into account) was “Torrente, the dumb arm of the law,” a comedy that’s closer to Police Academy and Animal House than to Hill Street Blues or your-pick-of-artsy. It specifically runs away from anything artsy at a speed that would make Speedy Gonzalez feel slow and the Roadrunner call his psychiatrist for depression treatment. Its two sequels didn’t count as sleepers any more, of course; I think all three still hold the three spots for best-grossing Spanish movies.
Releases in Spain are either simultaneous with the US or a long time behind (sometimes we may get in theaters stuff which was for-video in the US, or which nobody expected would do well but which did). American movies and TV shows get dubbed to Spanish twice, once for Spain and once for Latin America. European movies often get dubbed to “Spanish from Spain” only.
I really don’t have an opinion at all on Brokeback Mtn. Didn’t ever see it. Damn, now that I’m on the spot my brain is offering nothing!! :mad: Ummmm. Uh. Hmmm. Well here’s a few that I am interested in seeing that aren’t showing here: Hurt Locker, Big Fan (the movie that fueled me starting this thread like a rambling grump), Paper Heart. My brainstorming isn’t going so well, but here’s some from the past 5-10 years or so that weren’t widely released and didn’t show in this city of almost half a million people: The Man Who Wasn’t There, Booondock Saints, Garden State, Squid and the Whale, Ghost World, The Limey, Mulholland Dr., Straight Story, Inland Empire (this one I can understand, it’s way the fuk out there even for David Lynch), and those are the ones coming to mind at the moment.
My local (South London) cinema is currently showing:
Fame
Toy Story 3-D
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Surrogates
The Invention of Lying
District 9
So pretty much all US films except the last one. A quick check of the rest of the Odeon chain shows no British films that I can see and almost all US films (some crap, some not), although one screen is showing Bollywood film Dil Bole Hadippa!.
Australians are frequently known to disparage “Australian” Movies/TV shows/etc- I’ve certainly done it often enough.
The phenomonen is sometimes handwaved away as “Cultural Cringe” but I personally just think a lot of the “Australian” movies and TV shows are shit. There are some good Australian films (Crackerjack, the Mad Max films, Hercules Returns, The Castle, and Dark City spring to mind), though.
It’s not just cinemas that are more or less taken over by American mass-production films, but European televison is also dominated by shows produced in the US. You’d be surprised to see it.
It’s not that the European market is all-American. For example, Amelie was a huge mainstream hit back in 2001 and the Labyrinth of the Faun also had a great reception. One might say that those two are greatly influenced by American ways of story-telling, but they also undoubtedly have a very European voice.
Of course, they are exceptions to the rule. For the most part, you’ll have cinemaplexes that show mostly American movies while more intellectual, artistic and/or demanding movies are usually found in smaller movie clubs. Actually, looking at tonight’s cinemaplex program, the most popular movie is Swedish and only half of the program is American. Also, there are opera viewings (live broadcast at cinema screen). This is not the rule, however.
e I would note that I think a lot of people openly regard mainstream Hollywood movies as “low brow” culture. Openly, at least. It doesn’t stop them from going to Spiderman 3 with all their friends.
In that vein have you seen most of Roberto Benigni’s movies? “Life is Beautiful,” I think, was really kind of a fluke, because most the rest of his films suck.
The guy’s considered the Adam Sandler of Italian cinema - a huge star, occasionally able to pull out a stellar performance, but not exactly Robert De Niro.
You can actually google movie listings for different cities of the world to see what’s playing there. The results will often be in English.
The Boondock Saints was released direct to video.
As for the rest of your list, those are all major art house movies and if they didn’t play in your neck of the woods, it likely has more to do with the owners of the theaters around you than any kind of “Americans are stupid” mentality. Do you have an independant theater around you? Because if not, that would explan a lot.
Still, Garden State and Ghost World definitely played at cineplexes, because that’s where I saw them.
One thing to keep in mind is that Hollywood is the only place that crank out so many high-budget titles on such a steady basis. Because of that, it’s synonomous with being the state of the art of movies to us non-Americans.
I remember in 1998, Sweden and Norway collaborated to create the highest-budget movie in the history of Scandinavian film. The result was Hamilton, which was possibly a touch more inspired than an average action movie. To me, it mostly served to show the proportions of the *industry *that American movie making really is. Europeans do better with truthful story-telling, but it’s not really exciting to the average Hans, Dimitri, Heikki or Cornelia compared to the newest and flashiest Hollywood product.
Yes, one indy theater in town with two screens. It’s where I finally saw Mulholland Dr. without having to wait for video. He got it for the last two days that it could be shown. Boondock Saints was on a few screens for a short time. It’s talked about in the documentary “Overnight” abbout Troy Duffy. As for Ghost World and Garden State, I remember waiting for both of them and neither ever opening here. OK, so it’s all about what the owners of theaters choose to show? So, typically the big places (which is about all we have left) won’t bother with anything that isn’t big studio? Well they will once an independent or foreign gets an Oscar nomination haha. Then it becomes our special movie for the year and people can feel cultured and unique because they went and saw Amile and read subtitles! Oh, and I stand by my “Americans are stupid.” 
As long as they shell out dollars to see “Dance Flick” and “12 Rounds” and “comedies” starring Eddie Murphy… well wait, if the whole world is doing it then I take it back. People are stupid. There.
Ghost World was released by MGM and Garden State was released by Fox (and also starred two of the biggest young actors in the country at the time). There’s really no such thing as an “indie” movie when it comes to the average theater. Even the vast majority of art house movies are created by the big studios.
Sorry Shiggy, I don’t think holding all moviegoers in contempt is the right call. You just live in an area with shitty theater operators.
HAHA, Fair enough!! I still hate everybody though because “Big Fan” isn’t coming anywhere even near me, video release isn’t until February at least. Well, fuck it, life goes on. The good thing about Cinemark and Tinseltown not showing stuff I really want to see is that I never have to go to them very often. I am going to go seea few that are on now. It’s been a good month for movies coming out.
That just sounds like a less stylish and sophisticated version of Secretary.
Yeah! That was my first thought, so I looked it up. Says it’s pretty much a 9 1/2 Weeks ripoff.
[ul]
[li]Muriel’s Wedding[/li][li]The Dish[/li][li]Priscilla, Queen of the Desert[/li][li]Strictly Ballroom[/li][li]Moulin Rouge![/li][/ul]
all of those were excellent… Dark City? Ozzie director but… (a fav movie of mine, but didn’t think it was Australian).
Thailand arguably makes the worst movies in the world. They make Adam Sandler look like Fellini. There are basically two types of Thai movies: Incredibly silly and incredibly violent. And I don’t mean Quentin Tarantino violent, but over-the-top horror-film violent. Very, very gross. Usually has to have a comic transvestite in there somewhere too. The few times they try to make a serious film, it’s generally drawn out and boring.
There are some good film industries in the region. China, Japan, some of the stuff from India. But it’s just crap in Thailand, so thank goodness for Hollywood. Some indie films make it here too, and even if not, there are specialty video stores to find them in.