I don’t think I’ve ever seen an international film showing at a mainstream movie theater in the US. I’ve only seen them at obscure locally owned theaters. In other countries at movie theaters they have a mix of local films, American films, and other foreign films dubbed or with subtitles.

33 comments

  1. I definitely see foreign films at large theaters from time to time. In particular a lot of anime movies get major theater releases, although they’ll often just be in one theater per major city.

    But of course, the real answer to your question is just that we have large enough domestic film production to satisfy demand at our theaters, whereas most other countries’ film industries don’t have enough output to satisfy the local market.

  2. Large domestic market drowns out international films, which would also need financial backers to help advertise and distribute their films in the market to be seen. Its an uphill battle for foreign films.

  3. You mean like Parasite, Life is Beautiful, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Pan’s Labryinth, Amelie, Like Water for Chocolate…or even Inglorious Basterds which was mostly a foreign language film?

    A lot of people don’t like to read movies, it’s distracting to them. The good ones break through, but we have a massive entertainment complex in the US and there’s not enough time to consume the content made in our native language. It’s just a barrier of entry for many people.

  4. While the competition for cinema screens is very difficult for international movies, they are incredibly popular on streaming services. Netflix has really ushered in a golden era and is changing American’s tastes.

  5. We have such a huge domestic market that there’s no demand. The fact that your 3 categories include “American movies” and “other foreign films” is a testament to that.

  6. I honestly don’t know how movie theaters stay opened. There used to be 5 or 6 here, now only 1. Assume the price is beyond what people want to pay specially when you have lots of foreign films and popular films on TV.

  7. In other countries they have to make independent movies in their own language or they wouldn’t have movies in their language.

  8. Around me, they’re gaining in popularity. The large Cinemark near where I live typically has 3-4 screens dedicated to Bollywood movies. And this is in suburban Ohio.

    You’re right, though, that it sometimes takes a little more effort to seek them out. The most reliable place for foreign films near me is the art school, which shows them fairly regularly, but then you’re forced to sit in what is essentially an auditorium-style classroom. It’s not terrible, but the seats are definitely a downgrade from the now-typical reclining movie theater seats.

  9. Exhibiting movies isn’t very profitable these days. Some less popular US made genres that used to make sense financially don’t get theatrical releases. So, like comedies and romances, foreign films have joined the pile of stuff that only get seen on streaming.Theaters need massive hits to stay afloat. It’s not a healthy industry.

  10. Domestic movies overshadow them that’s all. Unlike other countries USA produce more films than Europe or Asian countries. Also USA has better advertising and distribution around the world. USA is biggest entertainment exporter in the world. Other countries market is small and do not produce as much as USA except maybe Bollywood and Nollywood but USA learned how to make movies for wide appeal around the world. Other countroes can only make films for smaller market sadly. Well some reach wider audience of course but it doesn’t happen too often.

  11. It’s just supply and demand I think. Your average moviegoer isn’t clamoring for French cinema. That said, my local theater shows Bollywood films because the large Indian population means there’s a demand for them.

  13. First, as we were discussing the other day, movies made in English typically “don’t count” as foreign to Americans.

    Like, the *Mad Max* series of movies is primarily Australian, but nobody thinks of them as foreign movies. You’d have to cut deeper, maybe something like *Picnic at Hanging Rock* or *Rabbit-Proof Fence* to have people think of it as a foreign movie made in Australia.

    British movies, largely the same. (Loads of examples, but… *Harry Potter* films. British author, British cast, produced in Britain, about British wizards, not considered Foreign. *James Bond* movies, about the same thing. Edgar Wright movies are super English, but aren’t considered “Foreign”. Even historical pieces aren’t, usually. You’d have to get really niche in modern Britain- more niche than Monty Python or Guy Ritchie films, at minimum- before you get called “Foreign”.)

    Canadian movies don’t typically get a lot of attention, but since so many American productions film in Toronto or Vancouver and so many Canadian performers work in Hollywood, you’d have to get *really* ‘Canadian’ to register as ‘Canadian’. (*The Sweet Hereafter* could have been set anywhere with a proper winter in the US rather than British Columbia, for instance, but *Bon Cop/Bad Cop could only* have been set on the Toronto/Quebec line.)

    It is true that, until relatively recently, foreign movies in American markets were either really arthouse (like, say, Bergman, Satyajit Ray or Akira Kurosawa films) or really “Drive In” (Godzilla flicks, Mexican Wrestling films, the more just-put-’em-out variety of Kung Fu movie, etc).

    Until fairly recently, it was an event when one goes mainstream. But they DO go mainstream: *Amelie, District 9, Pan’s Labyrinth, Ring, Slumdog Millionaire, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, El Mariachi, Life is Beautiful, Cinema Paradiso*, Spaghetti Westerns, *Let The Right One In, Parasite, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.* Not a “niche hit” in the bunch (though I’d say things like *Run Lola Run* or Stephen Chow comedies are considered niche, but still fairly well-known).

    I think where you might have taken a wrong turn was to expect to see them at *theaters.* Home video options (DVD/Streaming mainly) are the more popular option for most movies now.

    (I could go into how the “mid-level” type of movies- non-com romances, human-stakes dramas, comedies that aren’t animated, etc- got overwhelmed in the theaters by nonstop blockbuster “Franchise” movies, but that’s another topic.)

    So, *Parasite* generally wouldn’t have been seen in a ton of movieplexes because whatever the hypothetical American equivalent movie would be would *also* not usually be seen in movieplexes.

  14. Because we already make lots of good movies.
    Also, as i spend more time on this specific sub I realize that foreign movies are apparently just direct telling of actual day to day life, which is quite boring.

    But really, there are many, many examples of foreign films hitting big here, you may just not have realized that they were.

  16. Americans don’t give a rats ass about the rest of the world. Neither do many of those migrating to the US.

  18. >Why are international movies not popular?

    They’re not good.

    Seriously, we have our tastes. I’ve seen a few international movies at the indie theater, and … they’re different. Some were good, some not, but none were really what Americans are used to. The ones that crossed over (eg, Crouch Tiger, Hidden Dragon) to the regular cinema were most like our style.

  19. Your assumption is false. There are at least 2 international movies being shown at my local AMC right now

  20. I’ve seen foreign films in the theater occasionally. But, you have to keep in mind that the American movie industry is one of the biggest film industries in the world. Films are a major export for us. So, foreign movies being imported have a nasty competition that they have to fight through.

  22. While it is true that they are uncommon, it isn’t that they don’t exist. RRR did get released. HK movies used to show in the theater. Sholin Soccer was hilarious. Now that you mention it, that seems even more uncommon than it used to.

    Fathom events usually runs good Anime movies.

    If you are looking for an obscure artsy French movie, then probably no. There has to be some sort of basic market willing to pay to see it.

  23. They aren’t? Netflix has plenty of international movies available in the US that hit the top US streaming charts.

    In theaters, it will be reserved for films with a much larger US target demographic of people willing to even go to the theater. Though I do see foreign movies in theaters from time to time but it’s usually anime movies and it’s usually limited releases showing for only a weekend or two.

    But international movies are at it’s highest viewership in America right now. But it’s also competing with blockbuster movies in American theaters.

  26. I’ve seen plenty at Harkins here in Arizona. There was a 5 year period where the fewest number of films I saw at my local Harkins was like 61. I saw a _ton_ of movies and plenty of them were indie and artsy, and foreign too.

    That said, that was all pre-COVID. Post-COVID theaters have leaned much more heavily into the bigger name films so maybe that’s not possible anymore.

  27. There’s a cinema in my mid size town that regularly shows foreign films. The kind with subtitles. They also show independent films there. I saw all the original ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ films there. ‘Downfall’, about Hitler’s last days. I also saw ‘The English Patient’ there many years ago. That’s not really an independent film but I guess they figured it wasn’t mainstream enough.

  28. Domestic dominates.

    But also, foreign film industries aren’t really thriving nor do they receive as much funding nowadays.

    Europe could easily create their own Hollywood or, at minimum, push the kind of cinema they produced back in their hey days.

    Same with Japan or Hong Kong. For whatever reasons, they just don’t or can’t.

    Only stead industry is, like, Bollywood. And it’s a little too specific in its design to have appeal outside of its own market.

  31. There’s a pretty endless list of films from the Anglosphere that have played in the US, to the point that people rarely even think about them being foreign in origin rather than just in theme. James Bond is made by a UK film company, for example – it’s not an American film with British actors/people putting on British accents.

    Other than that, I think pretty much all the Ghibli films in the past 20 years have gotten a wide US release.

  32. I think it depends where you are, when I lived in a big city , I’d see foreign. And international films often at. The theater.

  33. You must live in the middle of nowhere cause anime, live action Japanese, Bollywood, Chinese and Korean films show at AMC, regal, MJR etc all the time

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