The closest antonym for the word "facilitate" is "obstruct." While "facilitate" means to make a process easier or to help it along, "obstruct" means to hinder or obstruct that process.
Hollywood's Global Neighborhood
World History
This is a story about trade. It's also a story about movies.
Movie fans might not really care about international trade laws. Movies are entertaining, and for most people, trade laws are not! But movies are actually products, and—along with food, electronics, fuel, and more—they're imported and exported. Over time, international trade laws have changed, making it easier for cinephiles around the world to see great—and not so great—films.
Tricks of the Trade
For a long time, international trade was difficult, mainly because of barriers such as quotas and tariffs. For example, if an American company wanted to sell a food product to Mexico, or a Mexican company wanted to sell electronics to the United States, only a limited amount of the product could be exported, and exports were heavily taxed.
But with increased globalization, things changed. Starting in the 1990s, countries set up organizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and signed deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which made trade much easier.
Moving Movies
So where do movies come in? Here's where: For most of movie history, the largest source of box office earnings—money made from ticket sales—for Hollywood films was the United States, which makes sense since Hollywood is in the U.S. In 1991, only 30 percent of ticket sales came from outside the U.S., mostly because places like France, England, and South Korea enforced quotas that limited the number of American films that could be shown.
Some other countries were even stricter. For example, before 1994, all American movies were banned in China, and there was a big issue with piracy (as in making and distributing illicit copies of movies). There were so many illegal copies of American movies around that, in many countries, it made people less likely to see the movies being shown in theaters. Some people reasoned, why pay for a movie ticket when you can watch an illegal copy for much less or even free?
But in the 21st century, American films finally started to become more lucrative outside the United States. Blockbuster movies, like the Star Wars franchise, now open in theaters across the globe. There are many reasons for this change—including the invention of the Internet, which facilitates marketing films abroad, and the growth of the middle class in places such as Russia and Brazil, which means there are now millions more people who can afford movie tickets. But global trade might be the biggest factor. Modern trade deals have raised film quotas and cracked down on piracy, and China has also started allowing American films to be shown there. In 2005, China accounted for only about 1 percent of global box office earnings, but by 2015, that share had jumped to almost 18 percent.
A Global Shift
Because there are billions of people living outside the U.S., Hollywood studios are now making a lot of money from moviegoers around the globe. Around 70 percent of box office revenues come from global markets.
This shift hasn't just lined the pockets of movie executives. It has also transformed movies, because now they're made to entertain people around the world. One thing that's changed a lot in recent years is casting. To appeal to broad global audiences, Hollywood movies are much more diverse than they were 30 years ago, with actors from China, Korea, Australia, and other countries popping up regularly in American films. The content of American movies has changed, too. Plots are driven less by complex dialogue—which can be difficult to translate into many languages—than by flashy effects and exciting action scenes that everyone can understand.
This cultural exchange is working the other way, too, as countries in Europe, Asia, and South America try to get their films in front of American audiences. For example, American subscribers to Netflix can watch a whole selection of international films, including British historical dramas, Korean horror flicks, and Brazilian crime movies.
QUESTION 4
4 / 8
Which is the closest antonym for the word facilitate?
envision
penalize
dispense
obstruct
1 answer