re: Why Did The Western Die as a Genre?

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I've read that as difficult as it is to sell a western in the US, it's even harder overseas

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And yet you could argue that was BY FAR the most popular genre for American films overseas up to 30 years ago...and certainly the entire 20th century.

How many times has anybody met a foreigner and the first thing they say when you mention you are American..."something Cowboy this or Cowboy that." John Wayne, etc.

But yeah...America is known as the Cowboy. The West. Seriously by itself defines America to a foreign audience. You got some New York in there...but it really was the Western states that people identify America with in the movies.

And if the international market keeps hating America, by proxy they will hate the American Western - because that's what we are identified with.

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Foreigners apparently see the western as glorifying American imperialism

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i think it's just more glorifying America

China has some very Western-esque historical pieces, but with the Chinese glorification

there just aren't that many countries in the world that have an idea of what the kind of open frontier the West was to the US, due to simply geography. you have to have a HUGE country to have the same appreciation for the basic expanse of land. China can. Russia can (but much of it is inhospitable)

I mean here is Montana compared to Europe

LINK

South America is too dense with jungle. same with SE Asia

some areas in Africa probably could have something similar but the various histories of the countries don't really have that same appeal. their populations are more people-centric and they frame all conflicts as group vs. group. that's why so many of their actual conflicts have so much genocide