Why do we see Homogenization in Hollywood movies?

Julia Steeger
Nov 4 · 2 min read

According to Quora on average, 600 Hollywood movies are produced in a year. These movies are produced by top players like 20thCentury Fox, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and many more. To produce a blockbuster film, it roughly costs between $200 and $300 million. The amount of capital needed to produce a movie that will create enough revenue can only be done by the big players. The films we see being released have changed over time in the technology they use, the actors and actresses that are chosen for the roles, and the overall quality of the film. On the surface, movies appear as being complex and unique, yet, once we take a closer look into the movie themes and plots, we see there are common threads repeated.

As we discussed in class, movie production companies, live in constant fear of the consumer because they have the power to determine the success of the movie. Movie companies have multiple strategies to alleviate the risk the consumer’s changing preference carries. Many of these strategies involve having substantial capital to fund the production of the movies. As we see from the scatter plot below, the more money a movie has backing it, the more likely it will succeed in the box offices.


The homogenization theory strongly believes that the reason we see a lack of format, demographics, and idea diversity is due to the centralization of ownership. However, there are roughly fifteen big movie production companies and countless other independent movie production companies. This information directly contradicts the homogenization theory because we see a commonality in the movies, but there is no centralized ownership. The homogenization is driven by another factor; money. Not only is it driven by the pure presence of money but also by the fear of losing money. Movie producers are too wary of straying too far away from the norms in fear of creating failure and losing the money they invested in production. Because money drives the industry, it only makes sense that the movies that are box office hits are ones that have the most significant production budget.

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