Synopses & Reviews
"Global Hollywood is an extremely rich book--rich in its research, rich in its critical reflections and insights. . . .Through its political economy framework, Glob
al Hollywood touches on a vast array of important social and economic phenomena. . . . This book will be important for a number of readers: film historians and theorists, researchers of media history and politics, cultural studies scholars. . . . There are no studies I know of that deal with the range of material in
Global Hollywood and, moreover, there are certainly none that manage to synthesize and extend existing studies by incorporating them into [such] a strong, coherent, compelling overall argument."--Dana Polan, University of Southern California
"A very acute, at times brilliant, attack on many received notions on both the right and the left. It says much that needed saying, much that we didn't even know or hadn't even thought about. It's the most stimulating book about Hollywood as an industry that I have read."--Ed Buscombe
"A fresh, innovative look at Hollywood's domination of global film markets, Global Hollywood is chock full of valuable material. More importantly, the book represents a challenge to status quo assumptions about Hollywood's international dominance, as well as a political challenge to film and media scholars. A definite must-read for anyone interested in globalization or Hollywood."--Janet Wasko, author of Hollywood in the Information Age
Synopsis
Why is Hollywood so successful? Overwhelming almost every other national cinema in its own back yard and virtually extinguishing foreign cinema in the multicultural United States, Hollywood seems everywhere all powerful. This book addresses the vacuum left by textual analysis in examining this success. Turning to political economy, cultural studies, and cultural policy analysis to highlight the material factors underlining this apparent artistic success,
Global Hollywood considers such factors as the numerous hidden subsidies to the U.S. film industry and copyright limitations, which prevent the free flow of information. Most of all by relocating cultural production and through its relationship to world markets more generally, contemporary Hollywood has transformed itself to attain ever greater global clout and reach.
The authors also address the key areas of copyright, marketing, distribution, and exhibition that are cornerstones of the global industry apparatus. Challenging the simplicities of the cultural imperialist model and Hollywood's free market rhetoric, this book is the first academic study to retheorize the continued and expanding success of the Hollywood cinema factory.
About the Author
Toby Miller is Professor of Cinema Studies at New York University and the author of Technologies of Truth (1998) and The Avengers (1997). Richard Maxwell is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Queens College, City University of New York and editor of the forthcoming Culture Works: The Political Economy of Culture. Nitin Govil is completing a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies at New York University. John McMurria is also completing a Ph.D. at New York University.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Global History, Hollywood History, Cultural Imperialism, Globalisation = Laissez-Faire Hollywood?
Chapter Two:
The New International Division of Cultural Labour
Chapter Three: Co-Producing Hollywood
Chapter Four: Hollywood's Global Rights
Chapter Five: Distribution, Marketing and Exhibition
Chapter Six: Audiences