[Grue3]

>Yet, none of this content ever leaves the country.

And whose fault is this? People enjoy Japanese media all over the world despite the language barrier. French media used to be very popular in my country, like for example Louis de Funès movies? Even Iceland produces media that's popular worldwide, like Lazy Town or Bjork.

[kuschku]

Is there any pair of countries (A, B) so that A != USA, B != USA, and A consumes more movies from B than from USA?

I’d argue that no such pair of countries exists, except potentially ones with restricted media import rules, e.g. the pair of (North Korea, China).

[Grue3]

There probably are (something like Sri-Lanka/India or Guatemala/Mexico), but even if there aren't, what is this supposed to indicate? Yes, USA has strong film industry, fueled by its strong economy and large population. American films are distributed worldwide and tend to be popular with people. There's no other country that can match USA in the sheer volume (maybe China and India). But when making a movie you don't need to compete with the entire country. You just need to produce something that's appealing to the audiences. Somebody from Bulgaria doesn't care if the movie is American or German made, it's going to be dubbed in Bulgarian anyway.

[kuschku]

But that was exactly my point. The US movie industry is globally dominant, and through that, influencing other countries’ cultures.

[irrational]

But the EU has a greater population than the US. I don't know anything about economics, but surely the EU as a whole is as strong as the US economy. So... why can't the EU create a movie industry that is as dominant as Hollywood?