Changing patterns of foreign movie imports, tastes, and consumption in Australia

The movie market in Australia, as in most countries, is highly dominated by Hollywood movies. However, there is an increasing trend of movies being imported from non-US countries. This study extends the one-way flow model of media products to examine whether there has been an increase in the diversity of movie imports in recent years and to explain how this has been influenced by changes in cultural taste over time. Regression analyses of movies imported from 1999 to 2009 confirm the economic theory of one-way media flow that considers both market size and cultural discount. In addition, changes in the Australian population composition and increased exposure to foreign culture are found to influence the diversity in movie imports. The analysis indicates that cultural taste can change through repeated exposure and consumption. Through a longer-term investigation of how cultural tastes form and change over time, we can establish a more nuanced model of international trade in cultural products.