Isn’t Piracy Supposed to Hurt Films?
Let me get this straight. X-Men Origins: Wolverine leaked to the public more than a month prior to theatrical opening, and the flick has been widely panned. Yet it still had a $9.1 million bigger opening weekend than Star Trek, which got universally positive reviews and even advance Thursday night screenings. And with a $235 million total box office so far, including international receipts, ICv2 anticipates that Wolverine will continue to outgross Star Trek.
I’m not arguing that the leaked workprint compromised Wolverine ticket sales, but doesn’t this also imply that unauthorized peer-to-peer distribution contributes to word of mouth advertising and anticipation? Setting aside speculation, this competition evidently does underscore the fact that super heroes are more accepted and popular among American movie goers than sci-fi action is.
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Some people have speculated that this film was intentionally leaked by the studio, not bootlegged. That way, it could blame piracy for whatever money it expected to lose on negative WOM. My feeling is Wolvie would’ve done whatever it did, regardless of piracy, because people love Jackman as the character. His last movie was a total bomb, but he’s still the Sean Connery of the comic book movie genre; so they damn well better not try to change actors on him anytime soon.
On the other hand, I do feel that piracy, while not always morally acceptable, is useful in destroying entities with no respect for quality entertainment. I imagine much of the revenue 4Kids lost in recent years was from people watching One Piece, Yu Gi Oh, and Shaman King uncut on file-sharing devices instead of on their network. And Harvey Scissorhands probably got booted from Di$ney because he sat on movies like Hero and Shaolin Soccer for so long that they underperformed in the U.S., compared to, say CTHD and Kung Fu Hustle. Oh, and it’s probably no coincidence that Lucas actually put out the OT he allegedly claimed was “burned” as soon as someone uploaded the “Han shoots first” clip.
Plus, let’s be honest. There are some movies and shows which studios refuse to release, because the record companies try to shake them down for music fees which are definitely not justified in today’s market. So piracy might be the only way to see them. [Japan, in particular, thinks way too highly of that shitty band in Macross 7.] Of course, a studio like FOX could easily afford Ally McBeal and uncut WKRP on dvd, and would make its money back ten times over on the former series, and at least establish some good will with the latter series. But the movie suits care more about not making a deal with record suits who think compensation is more important than exposure to a new generation of potential fans.
Oh, and Star Trek did worse than Wolvie, because it looks like a Phantom Menace/Serenity clone, not because it was a sci-fi action film. Transformers [Yeah, I know it’s a stretch to apply “sci-fi” or “action” to it.] will still end up being more successful than Wolvie in the end. Not sure what the verdict on T4 will be, though. Ironically, that leaked curse loop of Bale probably gave the flick more publicity than any bootleg could do.
Piracy can help a good product. (Not guaranteed, but it can happen.) It definitely will hurt a bad one.
There are a lot more bad products than good ones every year, so it’s a net negative for the studios. (heh)
I’m pretty sick of the word piracy, especially when used in this context. “Piracy” doesn’t hurt the content, it hurts the distributors pockets.
In this day of “instant” distribution, I have pretty much assigned myself the entertainment industry (including anime) is doing more damage to themselves by trying to force consumers to remain in the idiotic distribution model.
Whether it be The Pirate Bay, fan sub sites, or P2P software, the industry refuses to accept the notion it’s the delay causing the loses, not that people aren’t willing to pay.
One must ask: Why not distribute this movie via theaters, DVDs, and online at the same time? What purpose does using the current system do, other than give executives reasons to claim “piracy steals our profits!”?
I’m not sure about other readers here, but I’m tired of this model. I haven’t bought a CD since the 90s, and I stopped buying movie DVDs 3 years ago. I do purchase anime DVDs, but only because there are no decent alternatives to replace the DVD quality (and I buy them cheap).
I don’t expect the entertainment industry to change anytime soon. Instead, they’ll continue bullying their way into governments around the world to protect their pockets while continuing to screw over both the consumer and the artist.
It’s about time we aren’t told who to buy, how to buy, and on what device we’re allowed to play the content we legally purchase on.
If ripping my music from CD to mp3 makes me a pirate, then avast ye, matey! Because there’s no way I’m paying for the same song many times. I already own it and I’ll do whatever I want with it.
As for the anime industry, expect to see more closings coming. Jun Planning just went under, and that’s not a good thing when this industry relies on merchandise sales.
It’s about time the entire industry wake up and begin working new models to get people to pay, instead of this idiotic notion of controlling content.
Because it’s been proven many times these sites aren’t going away. So why is so much money being wasted on trying to stop the problem instead of adapting new ideas?
Want to see the true definition of piracy? Watching how music increased to $1.30 on iTunes, while promising a 3 tier pricing system, and not a single song can be found for the $0.69 bottom tier.
Funny thing is: If iTunes sold its songs at $0.10 each, they’d make more money faster, consumers would be happier, and demand would increase overnight. Everyone wins.
Yet…
“What purpose does using the current system do, other than give executives reasons to claim “piracy steals our profits!â€?”
The thing is that productions cost more than they’re worth nowadays. So the purpose of the current system is to convince the public to to pay off the budget. The studios could release their movies simultaneously, but then consumers would automatically go for the cheapest venue, and the films would lose money. After all, if you could download most movies, for, say $1, versus, $7-$10, which would you pick?
As for CDs, I still buy ’em once in a while, but generally ones with multiple artists or soundtracks on ’em. And yeah, I agree that they’re a rip-off, especially when most of them feature one-hit wonders. But, for the RIAA, piracy was an easier scapegoat in the face of declining profits than overpriced, low-quality music.