Using big cultural data to understand diversity and reciprocity in the global flow of contemporary cinema

The paper explores the relationships between countries in the exchange of movies and measures the reciprocal nature of these relationships. This investigation represents an innovative way to explore international exchanges of digital cinema analysed at the national level. Rather than focus on the market dominance of particular cinemas (e.g. the US or Indian cinemas) we examine the relative strength of two-way relationships in order to understand cultural reciprocity. The dynamics of shared cultural exchange are explored in terms of the volume of transactions between cinema nations expressed in the form of dyadic networks which is contrasted with raw transfers between nations to present a different and more nuanced level of understanding.