If movies are your thing, you probably follow box office numbers with some interest. (Your obsession with them may vary.) Even if we pretend to ignore those scores, the sad and ugly truth is that they do matter. The movie that make money are what determines Hollywood's offerings for years to come.

The American box office is what used to dictate these terms.  But there's a new player swaying the minds of studio executives, and it's called the international box office. It's always been there, of course, but the gross it provided was just the cherry on top of an American blockbuster.  But as Americans reject more and more of Hollywood's output, the world is eating it up, and often making the difference between a success and a disaster.

If that sounds judgmental towards international tastes, I apologize. I don't mean it to be. It was an enthusiasm that confused me at first – Aren't international audiences supposed to be more sophisticated? Aren't they supposed to reject products of our noisy, disposable culture? – but was quickly explained by faraway readers. No matter how bad a movie might be, the sheer spectacle it can offer (stars, CG, exotic American "otherness") is more entertaining than their homegrown efforts. And while familiarity breeds contempt, scarcity creates demand. Americans get Johnny Depp every day. The rest of the world sees him as a treat. So, of course they want more Pirates of the Caribbean.

The international demand is influencing Hollywood as it never has before. Movies are now being tailored to appeal to global demographics, and coyly released overseas long before they land in American theaters. Last year, Fast Five, Rio, and Thor all opened overseas before they opened in America, making enough money to be deemed hits before we got to plunk down our box office.

This year, The Avengers received a very loud and flashy international release, forcing Americans to glare at their laptop screens as viewers across the globe geeked out over Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Battleship has also been playing abroad for a solid month, raking in millions across Europe and Asia, albeit on a far quieter scale than Avengers. The reason? Supposedly, the sheer success and word-of-mouth from global moviegoers will influence Americans, and they'll flock out in greater numbers than they would otherwise. It's a bleak commentary on our mentality and economic force.

But should Hollywood continue to give international audiences an early taste?  It's a dubious decision – and I'm not just saying that because my far flung friends were discussing (and often spoiling!) Avengers before I could, making me Hulk green with envy. It's awfully difficult to argue that Avengers was a success because London and Tokyo were talking it up, and not because it was the final result of extensive world building, branding, and marketing by Marvel. Sure, Americans were probably more excited – the buzz was palpable – but I'd like to think it was because Thor ended on a cliffhanger, and not because it was doing so well in Oslo. After all, audiences aren't more hyped for Battleship and it's not tracking any better in America than it was prior to international release.

It's also a wobbly argument because it's unlikely your average American realized Avengers (or Thor, or Fast Five...) was an international success. We are in an sorry age when most Americans don't pay attention to overseas events, so why would they care what foreign audiences are watching?  Even if they do care (and I am painting with a harsh brush),  I'm not sure a lot of Americans did know it was released abroad. I had friends who are well-plugged in to movie news feeds (and who have family and friends overseas) asking me why so many of our faraway friends were watching The Avengers.  (Had it opened in Sydney already? Why? Huh. Well, we've got our tickets for Friday. And so on.)

And that brings me to another important point: Piracy.  Hollywood keeps lamenting its existence and insisting it's siphoning off their profits, so why have they created a situation that will fuel it among American audiences?  The longer Americans have to wait to see a summer blockbuster, the more they will be encouraged to hit the internet, and download it.  (Especially that most desired demographic of young males, arguably more prone to pirate films anyway.)

I'm all for acknowledging (and even honoring with more culturally aware products) the global audience. But Hollywood's pre-courting is a lame duck of a plan. They should give films a universal release date.  Let's treat the world as it is – one giant enthusiastic fanbase that's online 24/7, blogging and chatting about movies the second they open.  Why keep films like carrots on sticks that reward more "enthusiastic" audiences, dividing continents into haves and have nots, spoiling the fresh film experience for one side of the pond? Films succeed on their own merits, not because of who sees and talk them up first.  It's time for Hollywood to focus on why a film is successful and exploit those virtues, not the shell game of release dates and preview screenings.