As the world's leisure time expands, an increasing amount of time and money is spent on all forms of entertainment. American Creativity and ingenuity also put together with other factors such as imagination and success has led to a worldwide demand of American films, music, television and other forms of entertainment. So much has the demand for American entertainment raised over the year that it is now among the most heavily exported goods from America to the rest of the world. In 1990 the Entertainment industry has generated over $300 billion in total revenues of which 20% is made from foreign sales. In 2000 the foreign contributions to the bulk of entertainment revenues came close to 50%. .
Being such a large industry that it is, it is hard to discuss all aspects of the entertainment industry. An industry that also lies within the realm of entertainment is the motion picture industry, which over the years has proven to be a very profitable and interesting industry to look at.
After several years of moderate increases, costs of production and distribution of movies increased sharply in 1989 and 1990. The quest for big box office returns and big budget movies created a large increase in the cost of making these movies. .
The movie industry in 1991 generated over $11 billion in revenue, an 11.5% increase from 1989. This was below the 16.5% compound annual growth in the 1980's. Growth in the industry has expanded significantly in the years that passed, fueled by increasing foreign revenues, as well as increasing ticket prices. The summer of 1990 marked the first downturn in domestic box office revenue since the start of the industries boom. Despite the new technologies of home cinema and DVD videos, motion picture attendance has been consistent, even in times of recession. With the start of the Gulf War in 1990 attendance did drop for the first two weeks of war, but people soon returned to their local theaters as anxiety lessened.