The U.S. Economy and Shifting Film Focus to International Markets

It’s important for actors to be aware of the film business as a whole.

Here is a very informative article coming out of the recent Cannes Film Festival. Here are a few highlights:

The acquisitions biz has shifted drastically. With the downturn in the niche market, studio specialty arms and the bigger indie buyers aren’t buying films like they once did. And projects are becoming more expensive, exemplified at Cannes by Steven Soderbergh’s companion Che Guevara films.

Translation: Fewer films are being purchased for distribution, making it less likely for some films to see the light of day.

The funding world is completely different. American sources of financing like hedge funds and Wall Street are being hit hard by the rocky U.S. economy, while new sources are popping up in other regions around the globe, like India and other Asian countries, as well as the Middle East.

Translation: Less films are being funded from traditional U.S. sources

Simultaneous with those shifts is Hollywood’s new attitude toward foreign production. U.S. studios are aggressively looking to produce local-language projects for a particular territory or territories.

Translation: Expect to see the studios dump more money into region-specific and foreign productions, leaving less money for domestic films.

Overall, it means that things are shifting due to the U.S. economy, and that domestic financing and distribution are becoming harder to obtain. For the actor, that could mean less work here in the States and/or decreased chances that completed films will be distributed.

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