Hollywood as the biggest algorithm that ever shaped our perception
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
By Miguel González
The leading American cinema industry that took over the whole world decades ago has been shaping the mind of Europeans and other developed and developing countries for many years, without us even noticing.
About 90% of movies watched in France in recent years are American (source: https://cultures.fr/en/post/articles/american-culture-dominates-the-world-global-influence) In Spain, American movies are watched 2 times more than Spanish films (source: https://cineconn.es/anuario-sgae-2025-consumo-de-cine-espana-2024/#:~:text=El%20cine%20estadounidense%20duplica%20las,el%20mismo%20n%C3%BAmero%20de%20pel%C3%ADculas).
This fact has given Hollywood carte blanche to spread its values worldwide, as capitalism (regardless of their positivity or negativity, which I will not judge).
Movies and cinema festivals as the Oscars, as innocent as they seem, have been a soft power tool to convince the world that America is cool, overshadowing other realities and other types of folks.
What has happened recently, and how does this have something to do with algorithms?
In the past, Hollywood had probably the strongest and most powerful distribution networks in the world, but still they needed tons of marketing and publicity to dominate the theatre rooms. In recent years, the leading streaming platforms have invaded living rooms across the whole world. And yes, algorithms in streaming platforms shape narrowly what we “freely decide” to see on a movie night. Algorithms are the new soft power tools. Especially on streaming platforms, social media and any service with Personalized Recommendation Systems o Recommender Systems (RecSys).
If traditional Hollywood shaped collective imagination via these powerful distribution nets during the XX century, American RecSys are deciding which stories survive and shape our perception of reality in the XXI century.
This is so huge that certain countries as China, have set up certain restrictions on Hollywood (source: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2025/04/17/china-is-introducing-new-restrictions-on-hollywood-films_6740318_19.html)
In Europe, we know EVERYTHING about the American lifestyle, and not just generic matters, which honestly may be similar to Europe's. I am talking about very specific details as how Americans face fear, teenage angst, love, or heartbreak. I can assure you that the average Spaniard knows at least a little about how the American educational system works, or how the Greek fraternity system works. I am talking about how the American real estate market works, or bank holidays, or celebrations, or geography, or law, or trials, or social security, or the unemployment office.
The fact that most people in western countries consume American content, has made us perceive Americans as brothers, while we perceive the rest of the world as aliens. Hollywood industry was and still is in a way the most perception shaping algorithm that has ever existed. Hollywood is politics.
You can bet most people in Western countries won't try and watch Latin-American, African or Asian cinema. We honestly know little to nothing about how they face fear, love, or other emotions that may not be covered by Hollywood, as the loss of honor or things like that. We don't know anything about their educational or healthcare systems. We believe they are much more different from us than they really are.
No mate, Kill Bill volume I it’s not Asian cinema. And yes man, they do have wi-fi in Africa. And guess what, they also wake up early to commute to their office and drink coffee and have bank accounts.
If you go on Filmin, or HBO, or Netflix (or even non-American platforms), the algorithms will never recommend anything that is not American, or European. We just think people from the Middle East or the Philippines are very different from us because we've never seen them! Because we are not allowed to see how similar we all are. They are hiding all of it from us.
What I am saying is that the great divide separating the Western world from the rest of the world comes from algorithms, algorithms that are older than platforms or search engines. Algorithms have always shaped the whole world.
I wanted to finish with a message full of hope: recommendation systems work based on what we consume. Yes, they enforce stereotypes, but they can be changed in order to discover new ways to see the world beyond the dominating American point of view.
If you are tired of movies, or you think you are, because you have learned that there are just 2 types of movies (Hollywood, and maybe, if you are very into cinema, big-budget, European auteur movies), try something different. Maybe, if enough people do the same thing, we change the algorithms for good.
Escape the dominating Hollywood industry, go watch something different. You’ll check how freaking similar western people are from the rest of humans in the world. That’s the key: disobey algorithms to change them.
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