Swinton believes falling revenue will create better films

After a poor summer, the US box office is around seven percent down on last year.

Andy Wing of Nielsen Entertainment, analysts for the global entertainment industry, told BBC World Service's The Ticket programme that this had prompted "mild panic" among the studios.

"Clearly there is some shift going on in the marketplace," he added.

Wanting something new

Top entertainment marketer and publicist Tony Angelotti said he believed the indications are that the audience has the upper hand in controlling the industry - and certainly in dictating the currency of different stars.

"I think if you break it down, and look at it as a business, I think the audience has the greatest power," he said.

"It's always the audience who tells you what they like. So if the audience tells you they like a particular superstar - and that includes international as well as domestic - then Hollywood is forced to use that superstar.

"That star then assumes an awful lot of power."

And British actress Thilda Swinton argued there could be positive results from this falling box office.

The penetration that Hollywood achieves in Africa and Asia is huge - it's almost like surrogate immigration Hotel Rwanda director Terry George

"It can only be a good thing for film-makers at the end of the day," she said.

"It means that the audience is saying it wants something new - and wants a varied palate as well."

For others, however, the notion that audiences are in any way controlling US film-industry is far-fetched.

"In a world where 50 percent of the budget of a film actually goes on promotion, as opposed to what you see on screen, the idea that we have a worlds where the consumer can exercise authority and sovereignty is absurd," said Professor Toby Miller, director of Film and Visual Culture programme at the University of California.

"This is an industry like any other. Of course it has to sell things - but it doesn't rely, effectively, on waiting, listening, responding to what audiences want, and then delivering that to them.

"It relies on knowing which parts of the world - and which parts of the associated media world - need its product and will pay for it, and a promotional system of merchandising, advertising and so on that overwhelms consumers."

One thing is certain - US domestic audiences are saturated with Hollywood products, and as a result, the industry has been seeking out more of the global marketplace.

Hollywood has doubled sales outside of the US in the last 15 years, and they now account for 60 percent of cinema revenues.

And Mr Wing said that some markets - for example Russia, Brazil, Italy and Japan - were "under-screened" and it was certain that studios would be pushing for bigger audiences in these areas.

Young American males

British filmmaker Terry George, who shot the Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda in Africa, told The Ticket he was astounded by the international reach of the US film industry.

"The penetration that Hollywood achieves in Africa and Asia is huge - it's almost like surrogate immigration," he said.

"Clearly, the values of America and the West are spread in particular by movies and television. I'm not sure that that's such a good thing."

Many Hollywood films suffered a poor summer

Some critics extend this view to argue that by venturing into new territories, Hollywood will be bullying audiences into seeing their movies.

But Jack Valente, former head of the Motion Picture Association of America, said that this simply was not true.

"No-one in America, including myself, forces people in other countries to see American movies," he said.

"The same people who make these decisions to go to American movies in Britain, France, Germany, Brazil, do it of their own free will. The same people who are these audiences also elect their prime ministers and their presidents... they're making personal decisions."

Whether this drive for new markets changes what is seen on screen, however, is debateable.

Professor Miller said that studies have shown that the action-adventure genre is "appealing internationally" - which also happens to be the type of film made for Hollywood's main target: young, American males.

Other demographic groups, such as the elderly or other ethnic minorities, are generally ignored, Professor Miller explained, because young men "are people who are deemed to be the folks who buy the merchandising, who repeat returnees to the theatre, who will participate in electronic videogames of the product".