Transatlantic Film Studies is not yet a coherently developed academic field. One can detect isolated and uncoordinated fragments of this area of study in different university departments and programs (Spanish and Portuguese, Modern Languages, Film and Television, Cultural Studies, Gender and Sexuality, Latin American Studies, and Comparative Literature, among others). This fragmentation and lack of consistency are not, however, intrinsically negative aspects. It is precisely because Transatlantic Film Studies has not yet been methodologically defined and bureaucratically organized that we cannot ignore or undervalue its interdisciplinary character. Dealing with movies in any transnational context inevitably leads to issues of geopolitical order, economic supremacy, and, of course, contestation among different audiovisual styles and fashions. The reason for this is quite simple. Cinema is an expensive form of art, a costly type of entertainment, much more costly, for instance, than literature, painting, music, or even theater. Producing a film demands an exceptional accumulation of financial and human resources. Regardless of what we may think of the quality of the final products (or, for that matter, how we may feel about the question of quality or taste in general), this kind of extraordinary investment needs to pay off and generate dividends. Since the beginnings of cinema as a popular form of consumption this has always been the case. Nevertheless, the situation has become more recalcitrant in an increasingly globalized market where national industries, such as the film industry, have been forced to compete in a transnational landscape that is far from even and symmetrical. Everybody competes but not everybody does so under the same conditions.

A couple of examples may shed light on this argument. According to some of UNESCO's data, which should be taken as a simple indication of a general but clear trend, between 1988 and 1999, around ten (so-called) “professional,” well-funded movies were produced per year in Mexico (UNESCO 2000: 27).