MIM Notes 223   December 1, 2000

Amerikan culture monopoly thrives
By MC12

Three years ago, we wrote a brief article on the top selling 
movies of the weekend, focusing on the corporate control and 
ownership of the movie industry.(1) An update of that research 
three years later shows the Amerikan culture monopoly is alive and 
well.

Over the weekend of November 3-5, 2000, U$ moviegoers dropped more 
than $104 million on tickets. Stuck between summer and 
Thanksgiving, this was not a big movie weekend.(2) Of the total 
spent, 88% was spent on the top 10 movies, 68% was spent on the 
top four movies (Charlie's Angels, Meet the Parents, The Legend of 
Bagger Vance, and Remember the Titans), and 38% was spent on 
Charlie's Angels alone.

Even without looking at the corporations behind the movies, this 
doesn't look like a diverse cultural tapestry of people expressing 
their identities through a smorgasbord of every different kind of 
cultural product. It is a very high level of cultural 
concentration, and one of the reasons MIM argues that -- contrary 
to anti-Communist shibboleths -- the public will enjoy greater 
"free speech" rights under the dictatorship of the proletariat.(6)

The top four movies are distributed by Sony, Universal 
(Vivendi/Seagram), Dreamworks, and Disney (through its Buena Vista 
company). These companies together put out 25 of the top 125 
movies, raking in 50% of the total cumulative receipts for all the 
movies. The next four companies cover the rest of the top 10 
movies. Artisan, Fox, Warner Brothers (AOL/Time Warner), and 
Paramount (Viacom/CBS/Blockbuster) put out another 28 of the top 
movies, for 40% of the receipts. These top eight companies with 
the top 10 movies, then, put out 63 out of the top 125 movies 
playing that weekend (more than half), and controlled 91% of the 
total sales.

Actually, this vast cultural influence in such a small number of 
hands is only the tip of the iceberg. These top eight movie 
companies, between them, control the ABC, CBS, FOX, and WB 
television networks, as well as hundreds of TV and radio stations 
(through direct ownership and network affiliation).

Paramount is owned by Viacom, which also owns Blockbuster video 
stores as well as the CBS networks. Universal, which is now under 
the Vivendi corporate parent after Vivendi bought Seagram this 
year, also owns a musical empire, including PolyGram, Interscope, 
MCA, Island/Def Jam, and other music companies. Sony's movie 
division controls production and distribution of movies, TV shows, 
and videos, in 67 countries. The Sony Corp. of America parent 
company sells everything from electronics to life insurance, and 
also owns TriStar and Columbia Pictures.(3) Both Sony and 
Universal own a lot of movie theaters, which always helps. And 
lest the reader think they are only locked in competition to the 
death, note that Universal makes video games for the Sony 
PlayStation. Buena Vista, which put out Remember the Titans, is an 
arm of Disney, along with Touchstone, Miramax, Dimension, 
Hollywood Pictures, and of course Walt Disney pictures. In 
addition to the ABC network, Disney also owns 42 radio stations 
and 10 TV stations, along with ESPN, Lifetime, and other cable 
channels (not to mention theme parks). Finally, Warner Brothers is 
owned by the Time Warner empire, which publishes all those 
magazines as well as CNN, HBO, movies and music -- and will soon 
be owned by Internet power America Online, which is also the owner 
of Netscape, Moviefone, MapQuest.com, Spinner.com, etc. etc.(5)

When we looked at the top five movies three years ago, they were 
distributed by Sony, Disney, Paramount and Time Warner. That 
weekend, the top five grossed 69% of sales for the top 60, the 
number then commonly published. This week, the top five grossed 
73% of sales from the top 60. Since then, Time Warner has been 
bought by America Online, and Viacom has bought CBS, among other 
mergers.

Amerikan capitalism promises its citizens the greatest "freedoms" 
in the world, even as it imprisons more than 2 million of them. 
But despite the "freedom" to consume a "choice" of products, the 
mass culture available to hundreds of millions within the U$A is 
tightly controlled by a tiny handful of interlocked companies. 
With the mass culture under control, the imperialists try to sleep 
soundly at night.(4)

As we said three years ago, lots of critics of capitalism are 
upset about the concentration of capital in culture. But Maoists 
stand out in our understanding that this hegemony is reinforced by 
the massive infusion of super-profits from Third World countries. 
These profits make it possible to pay the people of the oppressor 
nations to play along. The movies alone can't fool everyone into 
supporting imperialism. In that way Amerika has developed a 
peculiar epidemic of decadent conformity, despite the constant 
mantra of free will and individuality and despite the vast wealth 
at their disposal.

Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, MIM would take steps to 
promote a true mass culture, such as erecting large and convenient 
bulletin boards, convenient places will be convenient places to 
distribute literature, opening meeting halls for the general 
public, etc. Thus, MIM will encourage a mass debate on important 
societal issues, and will use these forums to argue against the 
casual expression of mistaken bourgeois ideas. Organized and 
active promoters of bourgeios ideas -- such as the idea that 
property rights come before survival rights -- will be sent to re-
education camp.



Notes:

1. "Corporate Concentration And Cultural Hegemony: One Weekend's 
Movie Sales." 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/movies/movessay.html

2. Published data cover the top grossing 125 movies, or almost all 
of the movies being seen in theaters. See 
http://movies.yahoo.com/hv/boxoffice/latest/rank.html for the 
latest results. 

3. PR Newswire, 9 Oct 2000. 

5. Most of this corporate research is from http://biz.yahoo.com, 
but it is all publicly available from various sources.

6. "Free speech" under the dictatorship of the proletariat, MIM 
1999 Congress Resolution, 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/cong/freespeech.html