Sweden’s Film Industry is Wiped out?
Today, former Senator and current head of the Motion Picture Association of America, Chris Dodd spoke at the Center for America Progress about creativity and copyright. While there are a number of points I could push back against in his talk one remark in particular stands out. Shortly after beginning of his conversation with Alyssa Rosenberg, Dodd claims “The entire film industry of Spain, Egypt and Sweden are gone.” At least with respect to Sweden, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Sweden actually produces a number of high quality films. Released in 2008, the vampire flim Let The Right One In received critical acclaim here in the U.S. Additionally, all three best-selling books of the Millennium Trilogy are Swedish films and 2009’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was quite successful. The film made a modest $10 million in the U.S. and a respectable $104 million worldwide.
Considering the budget for the U.S. remake of the film is $100 million - as much as the original film has earned to date - perhaps Dodd meant that the film does not count until Hollywood gets a chance to remake it. Ironically, the U.S. remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was shot in Sweden.
Chris Dodd was correct to say that film is an international industry, but he was wrong to say that the Swedish film industry has disappeared and misleading to imply that all Hollywood jobs are American jobs. At least for this Hollywood production, Sweden has a lot to gain.
