Semester 2, academic year 2024/2025
By Qianyi Wang
The globalized film industry provides a space for diverse cultural narratives to interact, yet existing power structures disproportionately favor productions from the Global North (Hollywood as a prime example), marginalizing other voices. This study examines structural inequalities in the globalized film industry by analyzing how films from the Global South and North are produced and consumed. Through automated content analysis on a large-scale dataset collected from public sources such as The Movie Database (TMDb), the study addresses these questions: (1) How does production origin (Global South vs. North) shape film distribution, audience consumption, and thematic content of films in an increasingly globalized film market? (2) To what extent has the global film market diversified in terms of production origin, distribution and audience consumption between 2000 and 2024?
This study analyzes metadata on countries of film productions, distribution patterns, global revenues, and narrative content across a 25-year period. It first investigates the dynamic relationship between production origins and film distribution, audience consumption, then applies topic modeling to compare dominant themes in films from the Globa South and North. By combining quantitative methods with a critical, postcolonial lens, this study offers empirical insights into media inequalities at a global scale. The findings will allow critical assessment on how globalization reinforces or challenges existing hegemonies, contributing to discussions on media diversity and representation.