Why do foreign films always fail to make an impression at the US box office..?
Well, it’s certainly not an issue of quality – I’d take stuff like “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and “Persepolis” over about 99% of the American movies that came out last year. Subtitles probably do have something to do with it. Even rather mainstream, audience pleasing films like “Amelie” and “Les Choristes” – films that may have been a huge hit with mainstream audiences had they been made in America, or even simply dubbed and put into the megaplexes – fail to make much money, at least during their theatrical runs. But the main problem is simply with the fact that most of the highest quality foreign films aren’t made with the conventions of Hollywood in mind. Just as most independent films don’t get mass audiences – most of the best foreign films are simply too “non-mainstream” to ever attract mainstream audiences. It’s beautiful, universal stuff – but at the same time, the filmmaking techniques, and the “language barrier”, and the type of story being told is going to be enough
