British vs American Culture

The USA has 5 times the population of the UK, but the ratio of movie tickets sold is roughly 9 to 1 since Americans go to more movies than most people.

While American TV remakes every show in Britain that is the least bit popular, very few British movies are re-made. Movies made in their respective countries are simply shown in both countries, and they perform as they will. In contrast, nearly every French movie that is popular is re-made as an American English language film.

The table shows 60 recent films ranked in order by how popular they were in America vs. Britain. Revenue is in US million dollars and not adjusted for ticket prices in each country.

Nanny McPhee is a popular children's book character in Britain, and almost unheard of in America, so it's not surprising that the movie's popularity is much higher in Britain. And although the King's Speech received universal acclaim and awards in America, Britain responded by buying proportionately many more theater tickets given the size of the country.

The American side of the table has a movie based on Japanese anime, several distinctly American comedies, and a Justin Bieber fan film.

	BRITISH	USA	UK
1	Nanny McPhee and The Big Bang	$29	$85
2	Kick-Ass	$48	$47
3	Paul	$37	$23
4	The King's Speech	$135	$75
5	Sex and the City 2	$95	$33
6	Toy Story 3	$415	$117
7	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part Two)	$343	$91
8	Gnomeo and Juliet	$100	$25
9	Black Swan	$107	$26
10	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	$239	$54
11	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	$104	$23
12	Robin Hood	$105	$23
13	Shrek Forever After	$239	$51
14	The Hangover Part II	$253	$53
15	Little Fockers	$148	$31
16	Bridesmaids	$166	$33
17	Inception	$293	$57
18	Alice in Wonderland (2010)	$334	$64
19	Clash of the Titans (2010)	$163	$29
20	The Social Network	$97	$17
21	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One)	$295	$50
22	X-Men: First Class	$145	$25
23	Tangled	$201	$33
24	Kung Fu Panda 2	$163	$27
25	Due Date	$101	$16
26	The Expendables	$103	$16
27	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	$301	$46
28	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	$91	$14
29	Rio	$143	$21
30	Fast Five	$210	$30
31	Valentine's Day	$110	$15
32	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	$344	$45
33	The Hangover	$277	$36
34	Bad Teacher	$98	$13
35	Despicable Me	$252	$32
36	Shutter Island	$128	$16
37	Thor	$181	$23
38	How to Train Your Dragon	$218	$26
39	Red	$90	$11
40	Hop	$108	$12
41	The Karate Kid	$177	$20
42	Megamind	$148	$16
43	The Other Guys	$119	$13
44	Iron Man 2	$312	$30
45	Salt	$118	$11
46	Tron Legacy	$172	$16
47	Rango	$123	$11
48	Just Go With It	$103	$9
49	The Green Hornet	$99	$9
50	Green Lantern	$114	$10
51	Horrible Bosses	$105	$9
52	The Town	$92	$7
53	True Grit	$171	$13
54	Jackass 3-D	$117	$9
55	Grown Ups	$162	$12
56	Cars 2	$185	$13
57	The Book of Eli	$95	$6
58	Date Night	$99	$6
59	Justin Bieber: Never Say Never	$73	$4
60	The Last Airbender	$132	$7
	AMERICAN

I am a little surprised by the movies Kick-Ass and Paul. These movies contain British actors, but Paul seems more like an American stoner comedy in the spirit of Cheech and Chong. Kick-Ass horrified American parents with the foul-mouthed violent children. I don't know what the reaction was in Britain?



While it is not surprising that the Harry Potter films did well in Britain, I am surprised that Transformers and Sex and the City 2 did so well there.

The Brits must be smarter than Americans about turkeys like "Green Lantern".

Americans were intrigued at the idea of seeing Helen Mirren shooting big guns in Red. It seems that Brits were not as eager to see one of their greatest Shakespearean actresses going all ballistic. Maybe they feel like she has become a bit of a sell-out. Personally, I think De-Niro sold out by making the Focker movies.



Do you think the choices in movies says something about what each culture considers entertaining? Are there any theories about some of the more odd rankings that I mentioned earlier?

Paul does star Simon Pegg, beloved indie Brit Actor, plus it was a brilliantly funny nod to nerdy sci-fi movies, and geeks in general.

I'll pretty much see anything the Peggster is in.

Quote: thecesspit

I'll pretty much see anything the Peggster is in.

I logged into the Odeon website for Leicester Square and it was ₤14 ($23) to see 3D Green Lantern in the evening. No wonder you guys don't go to the movies very much. I can see first run 2D films for $5 in the afternoon.

The Brits skipped Last Airbender in droves! So did I.

That's central London tourist district, probably a premium on the price. Try the odeon, Sheffield.

But around 10 pounds, rings a bell...

Quote: pacomartin

Americans were intrigued at the idea of seeing Helen Mirren shooting big guns in Red. It seems that Brits were not as eager to see one of their greatest Shakespearean actresses going all ballistic. Maybe they feel like she has become a bit of a sell-out.

How quickly they forget. She played the Russian commander in 2010 Oddysey Two way back in the mid-80s. Not exactly an action role, to be sure, but also not something worthy of a "Shakespearean" actor. The moment you do the fake Russian accent, you've lost all claim to a good performance.

Quote:

Personally, I think De-Niro sold out by making the Focker movies.

Heaven forbid a man may profit from performing his craft.

Quote: pacomartin

The American side of the table has a movie based on Japanese anime

If you are referring to The Last Airbender, that is not based on Japanese anime, but a Nickelodeon cartoon that most anime fans consider "anime wannabe."

Here's another possible reason for the difference between USA and UK box offices; in the past, a number of movies have come out on DVD in the USA before their UK theatrical releases, and a considerable number of UK DVD players have ways of getting around the region encodings. (There was an attempt to get around this by creating DVDs which started playing as if they were in a different region (e.g. a Region 2 DVD would indicate to the player that it was really a Region 1), and if successful, it would pretty much lock up the player and display a screen calling the viewer a thief "reminding" the viewer that the DVD was the wrong region for that player, but I don't know how well that worked.)

I know nothing about British culture and who this Diana lady is they all keep referring to.