The Economics of American Theatrical Movie Exports: An Empirical Analysis

Consistent with predictions of an economic model of international trade in media products, we show that in countries that have relatively high consumer spending on movies-notably the United States-domestically produced movies account for relatively large shares of theater box office receipts. We also find that American-produced movies account for relatively small market shares of the box office in high movie-spending foreign countries. We also find that English language fluency, or a dummy variable for non-U.S. countries whose native language is English, generally has an insignificant or marginally significant effect on these results.