# Is Hollywood the entertainment capitol of the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 10, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176 "2011-03-10T14:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/1 "2011-03-10T14:48:07Z")
I’ve always wondered about this. So let’s say you’re a Brit or an Aussie, (or whatever non-American country) and you go down to your local theater; are some of them American? Are most of them American? About half? Just curious. (Jeez! I hoe I don’t sound like a typical self absorbed American.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/2 "2011-03-10T15:23:44Z")
Except for Bollywood, I think. I understand the Indian movie industry puts the American one to shame, both in terms of number of movies released and number of viewers, but it’s not as widespread. We rarely get Bollywood movies in Spain: lots of American releases, plus people assume that any movie whose original language is English is “Made in the USA”. This is helped in part by this phenomenon where you can place pretty much any story in America and, first, non-Americans will believe crazy situations more easily than if they are “at home” and second, there are a lot of cultural shortcuts you can take (everybody is familiar with “CDC” or “FBI”, but how many people know “CEI” or “Nacionales”?). ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/3 "2011-03-10T15:38:15Z")
Nitpick: Capital, not capitol. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/4 "2011-03-10T15:39:56Z")
Most of them are American. Some of them will be British, I guess, but I tend not to view that industry as separate from Hollywood as the real divider seems to be language, the casts and directors often switch. Ditto Australia/NZ. I mean, I consider the James Bond and Lord of the Rings franchises to be Hollywood movies in that sense. There might be one or two Indian films on at the larger multiplexes in malls, and there is a chain of “artier” movie houses, where they show mostly European/East Asian foreign-language movies with some American indies of the Sundance stripe. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/5 "2011-03-10T17:16:42Z")
The local movie theater is currently running 6 different Hollywood movies, 1 Danish movie and 1 Finnish movie which is about normal ratio, though that 1 Danish movie gets to represent all non-Finnish, non-Hollywood movies. **Gnomeo & Juliet** and **Tangled** are dubbed, the rest are subtitled. Upcoming movies has a lower Hollywood ratio at 8 Hollywood movies and 7 non-Hollywood ones. So yeah, over half of the movies are from Hollywood. We don’t get Bollywood movies at all - only seen one of them, ever. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/6 "2011-03-10T17:20:47Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/7 "2011-03-10T20:11:46Z")
My 1st instinct was no: because of Bollywood. I have a \ question: what city, if any, is “Bollywood” in India? ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/8 "2011-03-10T21:45:28Z")
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Austin pass Hollywood some day. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/9 "2011-03-10T21:54:25Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > It wouldn’t surprise me to see Austin pass Hollywood some day. It would certainly come as an absolutely colossal shock to me. Austin’s developed a reputation for being a film industry center, but it’s about a million miles behind Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/10 "2011-03-10T22:18:26Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It would certainly come as an absolutely colossal shock to me. Austin’s developed a reputation for being a film industry center, but it’s about a million miles behind Hollywood. Boston is just as likely as Austin to pass Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/11 "2011-03-10T22:31:46Z")
Does Bollwood have various genres of movies they make? Comedies, Horror, Action, SciFi, Drama, Fantasy, etc. Or are they strictly comedy & drama? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/12 "2011-03-10T22:47:52Z")
When I lived in Japan (2003-2004) I walked by a movie theater every day on my way to work, and it looked like about half the movies showing there were Hollywood movies. Japan has a larger movie industry than a lot of other countries, though. There were also occasionally movies from Korea or Hong Kong, but I couldn’t easily recognize this based on the posters alone so I’m not sure how common it was. When I visited Germany a few years back I _only_ saw posters for American movies. > [@etv78](#): > > My 1st instinct was no: because of Bollywood. I have a \ question: what city, if any, is “Bollywood” in India? Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/13 "2011-03-11T00:04:55Z")
Yep, Hollywood is the entertainment capitol of the world. That’s why the world is so fucked up. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/14 "2011-03-11T00:20:48Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > My 1st instinct was no: because of Bollywood. I have a \ question: what city, if any, is “Bollywood” in India? Bombay. There are other “-ollywoods” in India, too; they’re predominantly in other (non-Hindi) languages. I’m aware of a “Tollywood” (Bengali language and based in the Calcutta suburb of Tollygunge) as well as a “Kollywood” (Tamil language, based in Madras and named after the suburb the major studios are located in). ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/15 "2011-03-11T00:33:33Z")
There’s also Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry. They actually produce more movies than Hollywood ([cite](http://www.un.org/apps//news/story.asp?NewsID=30707&Cr=nigeria&Cr1=)), but very few of them make it to the US. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/16 "2011-03-11T01:15:59Z")
At a typical South Korean multiplex, there will be ten theaters. Seven will have Korean films, and three will have American. No Indian, no Chinese, no Japanese, Russian or French movies that I’ve ever noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/17 "2011-03-11T01:21:03Z")
The British rarely make a good film, and since the 1930s we have been overwhelmed by Hollywood. French films are highly regarded, but suffer from the annoying habit of speaking in French. Russia and Germany often make excellent films, but they are rarely shown. > [@Hampshire](#): > > Does Bollwood have various genres of movies they make? Comedies, Horror, Action, SciFi, Drama, Fantasy, etc. Or are they strictly comedy & drama? All Bollywood output is strictly horror. ---
**Author:** ![2ply](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/b2d939/32.png) [@2ply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2ply)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/18 "2011-03-11T01:35:56Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It would certainly come as an absolutely colossal shock to me. Austin’s developed a reputation for being a film industry center, but it’s about a million miles behind Hollywood. I always considered Hollywood the nickname for the American film industry as a whole. Like Madison Ave for the advertising industry or Detroit for the auto industry. How many American movies are filmed in southern California versus elsewhere these days? ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/19 "2011-03-11T01:38:45Z")
Boston get LOTS of film business. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176/20 "2011-03-11T02:12:47Z")
I’d guess it’s 50/50 over here. About half American movies, half French movies. Plus some non-American foreign movies thrown in. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-hollywood-the-entertainment-capitol-of-the-world/574176.md?page=2)