What the World’s Watching
The farther south you go in South America, the smaller the box office for action films, movie distributors in Argentina and Brazil say.
“It’s a hybrid market; top commercial action films will play well [in South America], but Brazil, Argentina and Chile have a more sophisticated market,” says Steven O’Dell, general manager in Brazil for United International Pictures.
Luis Gutmann, marketing manager for United International Pictures in Argentina, explains that there are more action films made than any other genre and thinks that “they are more accepted than other films because they have a larger potential public and therefore less investment risk.”
Certain legendary actors known for making violent action films are no longer big, such as Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal. The market for the type of movies they make is declining, the distributors say. Many such recent movies don’t get to theaters and instead are released in video stores.
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