US films with tobacco imagery have worldwide impact
Tobacco imagery emanating from US films is extensive outside the United States and Canada. Cinema admissions in the 25 countries that belonged to the European Union as of 2004 totalled 7.6 billion since 1999. Assuming that US films distributed in Europe largely match those released in the US and Canadaix and that these US films claim an estimated 66% share of the market in Europe,x US films delivered a total of about 25 billion estimated tobacco impressions to European theatre audiences from 1999 to 2006. Using the same assumptions, an estimated 8 billion tobacco impressions were delivered in theatres worldwide, outside the United States and Canada by US-produced films in 2006.
In the United States and Canada, these films delivered more than 4 billion estimated tobacco impressions in theatres in 2006. Thus, the US film industry delivers about two in-theatre tobacco impressions internationally for each impression it delivers in the United States and Canada markets. Because films produced in the United States comprise 60–70% of the theatrical box office receipts in other countries and likely dominate a similar share of DVD sales and rental transactions, it is important to consider the effect of tobacco imagery exposure from the US film industry, especially in the ratings mix that adolescents see most: PG-13 (not recommended for youth under 13 years old) and R (no one under 17 admitted without a parent).
Due to a marked drop in annual releases rated “R” between 1999 and 2005, the majority of movies from the United States with smoking were youth-rated by 2002. The share of movies with smoking that were youth-rated expanded from 43% in 1999 to 58% in 2004 and 2005. Most films with tobacco were youth-rated in 2006 as well, despite a 30% jump in R-rated movies with tobacco compared with the year before. Even in countries with bans on tobacco advertising and promotion, movie imagery continues to provide misleadingly positive messages about smoking. For example, in Australia, a 2008 study found that 70% of top box office films contained smoking depictions, including 75% of the most popular PG-rated films. In the UK, where almost all forms of tobacco advertising are prohibited, films from the United States that contain smoking scenes are widely viewed Hollywood blockbuster films containing tobacco imagery continue to earn billions of dollars abroad, including in those countries that have taken strong measures against tobacco advertising and promotion.
