SINCE the 1970's, Martial arts has become a significant industry, a subset of the wider sport industry (including cinema and sports television). Hundreds of millions of people worldwide practice some form of martial art. Web Japan (sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs) claims there are 50 million karate practitioners worldwide. The South Korean government in 2009 published an estimate that Taekwondo is practiced by 70 million people in 190 countries.
The American fascination with Asian self-defense techniques has been broad enough to go far beyond the stereotypical chopping, punching and kicking of the Japanese martial art of karate. Asian martial arts experienced a surge of popularity in the west during the 1970s, and the rising demand resulted in numerous low quality or fraudulent schools. Fueled by fictional depictions in martial arts movies, this led to the "ninja craze" of the 1980s United States. The rank system introduced for judo in the 1880s proved commercially viable, and "colored belt" systems were adopted in many martial arts degree mills (also known as "McDojos"; parodied in Penn & Teller: Bullshit! episode "Martial Arts", June 2010).
As an Industry
Before his scripts turned to high-tech weapons and explosions, Chuck Norris, a former martial arts champion, was good for business. The two ''Karate Kid'' movies were good for business. The Kung Fu television series of the 1970's was good for business. Even cheaply made ''chopsockey'' films aren't bad for business. And the late Bruce Lee was heaven on earth for business.
MA equipment. Not merely a protection for body but it's good to make money.
The wholesale value of martial arts related sports equipment shipped in the United States was estimated at 314 million USD in 2007; participation in the same year was estimated at 6.9 million (ages 6 or older, 2% of US population). R. A. Court, CEO of Martial Arts Channel, stated the total revenue of the US martial arts industry at USD 40 billion and the number of US practitioners at 30 million in 2003. Ultimate Fighting Championship generated a revenue of about USD 250 million in 2008, about 90% of the entire Mixed Martial Arts industry. World Wrestling Entertainment had a revenue of USD 1.4 billion.
Royal Rumble: WWE event have made a lot of bucks!
The teaching of the arts has been in something of a slump in the last few years, instructors, equipment makers and trade journalists say, and broadcasting and publishing coverage, like movies on the subject, usually sends enrollment up. That no one knows for sure is entirely typical of martial arts training in the United States, an odd amalgam of American business and Asian traditions.
Ridden with competing factions and styles, martial arts training is an industry consisting of thousands of idiosyncratic teachers, in which statistics and certainty are far rarer than impressions and opinions. Indeed, martial arts instructors almost always get more recruits when there is a popular film whose hero beats the bad guys with bare hands and a knowledge of Asian self-defense techniques.
Original resource: The Martial Arts as Moneymakers. By David Berreby is a freelance writer based in New York. Published: August 28, 1988 [NewYork Times] and .
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