NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - If Hollywood wants its films to burn up box offices overseas, it may want to keep the hamburger house McDonald's in mind, according to a study released Monday.

The study, produced by three professors at New York University's Stern School of Business, found that U.S. movies tended to have higher box office sales in countries with more "Golden Arches," taking income levels and population into account.

Using McDonald's as a measure of 'Americanization', professors C. Samuel Craig, Susan Douglas and William Greene looked at box office sales for the 50 top U.S. films from 1997 to 2002 in eight countries including Australia, Spain, Mexico, Germany and Argentina.

Included in the study's other findings was that certain film genres performed better than others, as action, animated and horror films typically outperformed family films.

The research, which was released in a statement Monday by NYU's Stern School of Business, is scheduled to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of International Marketing.

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