Hollywood and $$$$$

There's another installment in the Slate.com series on how the movies make money. This one addresses the often misunderstood foreign market.

The place where the studios look for their profits is not that elusive: It is America. The Hollywood studios make—and have always made—most of their money in the domestic market.

Furthermore, the "world" market is highly concentrated:

In the first quarter of 2005, just eight countries provided nearly 75 percent of the studios' total foreign revenue. Britain alone accounted for 20.7 percent of it; Germany, 12.8 percent; France, 9.6 percent; Canada, 8.1 percent; Japan, 7.2 percent; Italy, 6.1 percent; Australia, 5.1 percent; and Spain, 4.8 percent.