"Comedies that rely on a lot of dialogue and specific American cultural references = bad"

Thought that was interesting. Down here in the colonies we've been brought up on a diet of American cultural references since birth(One of the first words I could spell was 'aqua'. Thanks to Sesame Street's Maria and Luis for that) so I don't think this applies to us. Not that anyone would care moneywise because we're such a teeny tiny market. But still, the cultural context business is always a fascinating area. And the question does pop up ... Do we write for a specific audience or do we just write according to what that character would say or do. Comedy or whatever. Hmmm ...

The conventional wisdom is there is comedy that 'travels' (i.e., beyond domestic markets) and comedy that doesn't. Obviously, per the studios the former is preferable...

...unless the B.O. prospects domestically (against budget) are so big (ala Judd Apatow movies) that international revenues are gravy, not necessary to profitability.

The CW is that broad comedies, which rely on physical humor that doesn't require much dialogue to translate from one culture to another, are better in terms of world B.O.. But then there's Woody Allen who does very well in countries like France and Japan, and his movies are dialogue heavy.

OTOH, Allen has had a long career and the international audience has had several chances to get to know his movie stylings.

What's the answer for a new comedy screenwriter? Just write the best damn script you can. If it doesn't rely on special effects or CGI, and doesn't have an enormous budget, studios won't feel at a disadvantage if they think they can market the movie to domestic audience.

....And which comedies travel the other way. The French do a good line in concepts that are successfully rejigged for the US market.

Odd that Apatow isn't doing the biz in foreign markets - I kind of got from Puttnam's "Undeclared War" a sense that the seeds of successful Hollywood storytelling came from the European diaspora (Sam Geltfish et al) - so that what underlines both comedy and drama from Hollywood is the story of liberalism and hope.

Perhaps comedy is more sensitive to zeitgeist but, Apatow aside, I wonder whether comedies along the conventional diaspora model are the ones that have a bigger life in the foreign market place (e.g. Something About Mary, Night at the Museum, Wedding Crashers).

Interesting thought about "diaspora." With the emergence of globalization as well as the enormous reach of American media, one might logically expect Hollywood movies to travel equally well worldwide.

Another thought: I wonder if part of the equation is what the international community has been 'trained' to expect from Hollywood. The movies which have done well in the past are the type of big budget films that only Hollywood could do well -- blustery special EFX, lots of expansive visuals, CGI, and so on. 'Smaller' movies, that may rely more on dialogue and deeply textured characters, simply don't fit into the 'big' Hollywood brand -- from action movies to comedies, thrillers to sci-fi -- which people around the world have come to expect.

I'm sure somebody somewhere is writing a doctoral dissertation on this subject...