Chapter 26 Question 021

Why have Hindi-language films attracted more and more audiences in recent years? (Chris Anderson) Not so long ago, New Delhiites living in the United States had to go back to India to see films in their vernacular.But now, even if you live in a remote town near New York, you can rent hundreds of Hindi movies.What caused this change? Just like Chris.Anderson (Chris Andeson) said in his book "The Long Tail Theory" that only residents living in big cities could see foreign language movies in the past.Unless there is a large audience for each movie, movie theater owners cannot make money from bookings.So, even in a city with a lot of Indian immigrants, it is too demanding to show Indian movies.

However, with the emergence of online DVD rental services such as Netflix, the once relatively niche film market has undergone tremendous changes.To make money from this kind of movie, you no longer need to require a significant audience to be in the same place at the same time.If you want to watch Gol MOL, Palekar's 1979 comedy-drama, all you have to do is fill out a request form on Netflix.No city in America has enough Indian immigrants to justify the cost of showing Gol MOL in theaters.But it didn't cost Netflix much to add the film to its rental inventory, and the audience numbers were sufficient.

There are many, many movies that cannot be shown in theaters because there are not enough audiences; and many books that cannot be sold in bookstores because the number of readers is too small.But the emergence of online rental and sales has moved this part of the work out of the forgotten corner. The phenomena discussed in the last batch of examples in this chapter require us to consider their causes in terms of both the supply and demand sides of the market.