| This dissertation explores the effect of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) on movie genre production across countries. A historical review shows that the US has been prominent in CGI diffusion while other adopting countries, especially smaller nations, have lagged far behind in initial adoption time and in technical sophistication. I examine genre trends in seven countries: the US, the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, primarily over 1980-2006 period. Statistical results reveal that the largest two countries (the US and Japan) have risen to leading positions in "technology-friendly" (TF) genre production since the development of CGI, whereas Hong Kong, with the smallest home market, has experienced a sharp decline. The largest two countries have also increased their production of TF relative to non-TF genres. The smaller countries have either maintained very low TF genre production (France, the UK, and Germany) or shifted from TF to non-TF genre production (Korea and Hong Kong). While providing limited support to the home market effect on TF genre production, the examples from the 7 countries suggest that CGI has affected the international genre specialization pattern by increasing the comparative advantage of larger countries in TF genre production. |
