Paper Title
Cultural Distance in International Films: An Empirical Investigation in Taiwan
Abstract
Cultural products and services are created to cater to markets made up of cultural consumers. By using Hofstede’s
research on the dimensions of national culture, the cultural distances (CDs) between Taiwan and each of 36 countries from
which she imports such products and services were measured. Data on 3,075 movies’ box office revenues and film
characteristics from January 2013 to December 2015 were collected. The analysis shows that not only do Hollywood movies
dominate the Taiwanese market, but the return to CD decrease when an imported movie’s CD becomes larger. The effects
decline at a decreasing rate. The hypothesis of cultural discounts and the U-shaped impact of inter-country CD on global
cultural products are both supported. Action, science-fiction, and sequel movies during the Chinese New Year make more
money. A change in box office revenue from the highest CD to the lowest CD would result in a loss of over 1.12 million US
dollars.
Keywords - Box office revenues, cultural distance, Hollywood movies.