by At certain point many countries have American shows on their primetime block. Not Anymore.
Hollywood use to be seen as Number one but there are now Indian and Chinese movies that make more money than Hollywood movies for just a lower budget. The Chinese movie Hi Mom made US$848.4 million for a very low budget.
Let's start with India and China. These countries don't need to export their movies to make billions in the box office and make billions of dollars from the charts. Both are Billion dollar industries on their own but not as internationally mainstream. Hong Kong has its movie industry and at a certain point Hong Kong Kung-fu movies were kinda mainstream but China's movie industry is different from Hong Kong. China only exports its content to Chinese diasporas, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Chinese film industry is worth $22 Billion.
Many people thought Indian movies are Bollywood only but India has multiple movie industries that speak different languages and is marketed for different ethnicities in India. It will take forever if I explain them one by one but here is the complete list of Indian movie industries marketed for different languages and ethnic groups in India:
Indian movies are thriving the last decade that there are Indian actors who paid higher than Hollywood stars. The Indian film industry is worth $3.7 billion as of 2020. India's market outside India is Indian diaspora around the world, South Asian countries, the middle east, Indonesia, and the UK. I know people use to make memes with the bad special effects of old Bollywood movies but current Indian movies can compete with the US when it comes to CGI technology and cinematography. Indian movies are now in 4k graphics. The Pandemic did make Indian movies suffer but they now stream them in online services.
Now let's talk about Japan, Japanese live-action movies and shows are not their biggest export. It's their video games, Anime, and comic books. Mangas are selling better in the US than Marvel because Marvel's content has been garbage lately. Demon Slayer Anime movie dominated the movie charts at a certain point. Netflix created an Anime division because Anime is highly streamed around the world. Latin America is crazy about their Anime especially their local content is nothing but Telenovelas. To make sure they will not run out of ideas there are now Anime adapted from Non-Japanese materials. Japan also does well with its videogames and the videogame industry is now bigger than the movie and music industry combined. More people watched The videogame awards than Golden Globes or grammies last year.
A lot of Live-action American shows on streaming services got canceled but Netflix Anime have more success. It is a 24 Billion dollar industry. Yes, Anime is bigger than the Chinese film industry. Japan is an underpopulated country but it managed to get a market in the US, Europe, and Latin America.
Southeast Asia is also on the rise. Thailand's television industry got mainstream attention because they make Gay romance content or BL. Teenage girls like seeing two handsome boys in love. Thailand uploads these contents with English subtitles on Youtube and Facebook and they got millions of views. Then they are making content now for social media. These Gay romance shows is not even watched by gay men, they are watched by teenage girls around the world. Even girls from countries where these contents are banned are watching them. These got so popular that there is a Thai TV Network that makes mostly BL. Since these shows are marketed to young girls, they are not pornographic. They are mostly PG 13.
The Philippines can find Markets in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. The Tv network from this country exports their completed dramas to these countries and they are doing well. They are also exported in neighboring South East Asian countries. Their shows are Melodramatic and similar to Latin dramas because they were influenced by Mexican and Venezuelan shows during the 90s. Lately, they evolve to become marketable to Africa, Latin America, and even South Pacific Islands. The Philippines also got the attention of Latin American countries when they started winning Pageants. Pageants are big in Latin America so that made Latinos curious for Filipinos.
Thailand and the Philippines use Mixed race actors and actresses with Eurocentric features. So marketing to Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe is easy for them.
Now there is South Korea. South Korea is dominating Music charts around the world even in the US. US use to be so snobbish to Asian acts that mixed raced Asian Singers have to pass as white to chart in the US.
Even some of their movies are now reaching Hollywood levels at the box office. South Korea is even winning Oscars lately. Streaming services are doing well with Korean dramas. Netflix now added a dub option aside from subtitles in different languages. Streaming services thought Korean dramas will be watched by Asian Americans but they are wrong. White people and Latinos are the ones watching them.
Why?
Their content is secular enough for the liberals and wholesome enough for the conservatives. Hollywood lately had been alienating and demonizing the conservative Americans. There is too much identity politics with American content. Conservatives love the fact that Korean dramas are not spammed with sex scenes. They do have sex scenes but not as borderline porno-like American content. Liberals also like it because they see a story from a different culture.
Though India and China make more money, I see South Korea as the future of the entertainment industry. The government support that's why their content quality increased. They are better at marketing and they try to balance their content for all political beliefs.
Technology made the world smaller. The west cannot find Asian content in the past because there is Internet but now Asian content is at the comfort of their homes.
