Hollywood Between Piracy and Subscription

The Curious Case of Mexico

Abstract

Hollywood and its productions are omnipresent in Mexico’s audiovisual entertainment landscape. However, beyond the general concept of “Hollywood cinema”, it is the franchises and sequels – due to their familiarity, narrative continuity, and nostalgic appeal – that spark the greatest interest among Mexican audiences. This research recognizes a diverse national context, where the vastness and heterogeneity of the population results in multiple ways of accessing and viewing these films, many of them marked by tensions between legality and accessibility. Through the participants' responses to this study, it is evident how the desire to follow stories that offer narrative continuity drives audiences to actively seek out such content. Streaming platforms, in response, have acquired the rights to major Hollywood franchises to attract subscribers. However, despite these commercial strategies, piracy remains a relevant alternative. Factors such as social inequality and the instability of the catalog on multiple platforms drive the participants in this study to seek different ways of accessing the content they value: those stories that have accompanied them over time.