123musical acts. At heart, I had not fully recognized the relationship between local
and global culture, and how one evolves from the other. Today I understand it
much better. But my early misconceptions are still common among executives in
Hollywood and across the United States entertainment and business landscape.
Perhaps some soul searching is called for — not just in the entertainment indus-
try, but among leaders of any global enterprise.
Hollywood to Hengdian
For over 100 years, Hollywood has dominated the international marketplace. No
one else has been able to produce the hugely expensive wide-screen spectacles that
are known as “tentpoles”: projects with Hollywood production values whose abil-
ity to attract audiences props up everything else financially. Now, Hollywood’s
monopoly on those films may be on the verge of disappearing. Technological
disruption has made the tools of Hollywood production available to filmmakers
around the globe, in a way that observes no borders. At the same time, the yearn-
ing for localization, which seems hardwired into every culture on the planet, is
only getting stronger. People don’t want global cinema; they want local movies
with storytelling and production as good as anything done in Hollywood.
This is a type of challenge different from what the conventional wisdom
would suggest. Chinese filmmakers are probably not going to compete for U.S.
or European audiences anytime soon. But they are bringing global production
values home to compete intensively with any outsiders.
As anyone who has tried to set up a business outside his or her home coun-
I had not fully recognized
the relationship between local
and global culture, and how
one evolves from the other.
fea
ture (^)
tec
h (^) &
(^) in
no
va
tio
n
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