Bollywood

Of all the nations to have a well known history in cinema, I would not really have picked India. But it's apparently famous enough to be considered alongside Hollywood in some circles. I'm sure other first world nations would have a good film history but why don't I hear about them that much?

Hmmm, I think the French would be insulted that you forgot about them. They have a pretty descent film industry over there.

Also, the Germans are arguably the ones that started it all, but Nazi Germany wasn't the best place to work in the film industry in the 1930s and 40s. They ended up chasing a lot of the industry to Hollywood, and for that Hollywood owes Germany a lot.

Italy and the Spaghetti Western.

Eh, Ive tried watching Bollywood movies. There's probably some kind of cultural barrier there, because its all nonsense to me.

Bollywoooooood!

The problem is is that people expect B-wood films to be like the Western cinematic experience. It's not. Think of it like a filmed broadway musical, and it becomes easier to digest. At least for films prior to 2005. 2005 onwards, films have been trying to westernize, and some do an okay job, but a LOT fall flat on their face.

It's simply because of quantity of output. Bollywood churns out like five times more movies than Hollywood per year, IIRC. Most are okay-ish, some are good, but because of the sheer number, it follows that they release more good movies per year than Hollywood does, even if a smaller percent of the movies released are good.