The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record • Hacker News Board

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#71

Post by jakeonthemove » Tue, May 08, 2012, 5:48 PM UTC

The most mind boggling thing I've seen big studios do is block some trailers, promo videos or music videos in countries other than the US/UK/Canada or whatever their main market is. Why in the world would you ever do that?

It makes absolutely no sense - they're blocking people in other countries from getting to know their new movie/single, which means those potential cinema goers and DVD/CD buyers either forget about it or go to torrent sites to get it, so when the movie/single is finally released, few people care about it.

One of the stupidest thing I've ever seen, for sure...

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#72

Post by swombat » Tue, May 08, 2012, 5:49 PM UTC

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #43

nextparadigms wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how much money they could make if they released a 1080p HD version online, globally, 4 weeks at most after the launch in cinemas, and for a price of $5. That may or may not kill the cinemas in the long term, depending on how hard they fight to become more competitive and unique compared to watching the movie at home, but it would definitely not hurt the studios and movie makers. If anything, they stand to mak…

Why delay it at all? Frankly they shouldn't care how we want to watch a film, just that we want to and are willing to pay for it. I like films but have small kids so I can't get to the cinema as often as I'd like. By not letting me give them money to watch their film (and I won't pirate it, I'll just do something else) they're throwing money away. Get me while the publicity and hype are out there, when I can discuss…

Why delay it at all? Frankly they shouldn't care how we want to watch a film, just that we want to and are willing to pay for it.

If you watch the latest blockbuster on the day of release at home on your mega projector that you bought with all the money you saved by not going to the cinema, with your wife, your three kids, and your neighbours (5 more people), you pay for just one stream/ticket.

If all those people go to the cinema, they pay for 10 tickets.

That's a good rationale for why they care, imho.

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#73

Post by Keyframe » Tue, May 08, 2012, 5:53 PM UTC

cdr wrote: post #36

jcr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I certainly do not qualify for "have the background" but I do have some information. One part is cost of reproduction; it's rumored to cost $1,500 for each reproduced film reel set. The current work (that I know about) is the move towards digital distribution. http://singularityhub.com/2012/04/27/movie-theaters-ramp-up-... Another part is translation. Though language barriers have been decreasing during the last two…

My local indie theater recently ran a substantial (for them) fundraising campaign to upgrade to digital. They claimed that within a year or two, the major studios were going digital only and any theater without digital would be completely shut out. I didn't verify this, but I have no reason to doubt them.

DCP is de facto standard for a few years now. It is pretty rare to see 35mm copies around except on festivals. It is even rare to see film cameras on set, even on commercials which are usually ripe with, what would one call, 'hipsters'.

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#74

Post by tptacek » Tue, May 08, 2012, 5:58 PM UTC

Fatuous.

A cam'd version of The Avengers is not a market substitute for seeing the movie in a theater. Of the movies you could possibly consider this way, The Avengers is among the least amenable to substitution via cam'd copies.

All the widely-available torrents of The Avengers are cam'd or equivalent. There aren't screeners circulating.

A DVD rip is a near-perfect substitute for a DVD (or a streamed version of the movie, or whatever).

Nearly 50% of the revenue from motion pictures happens after the theater release, most of it DVDs.

Think what you want to think about torrenting movies, but it should bother you when sites like Torrentfreak insult your intelligence.

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#75

Post by rickmb » Tue, May 08, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

jcampbell1 wrote: post #28

tseabrooks wrote: post #4

Torrentfreak's articles seem to get better and better. They note the ways in which piracy is hurting films (foreign sales) and show some numbers indicating that in the US it doesn't appear to be hurting sales much at all. While obviously torrentfreak can't ever be considered objective in regards to piracy, they seem to be getting closer each time. Back on topic then, Does anyone have the background necessary to know…

I am perplexed by your comment about overseas release dates. There has been an absolutely massive compression in release dates in the past 5 years. Most obvious blockbusters are now globally released, and the spread for smaller films has also been contracting. Avengers was released overseas prior to the US release. A film like The Descendants was released 4 weeks early in NY/LA, and then foreign releases were only 6…

This only involves the top blockbusters. For most other US produced movies the waiting time for releases can easily be well over 6 months.

Besides, 6 weeks is still a long time in the age of instant global communication. Basically, all the hype and buzz surrounding a film starts well before the release and dramatically drops a week after. After a month, people have pretty much forgotten about it.

This hurts sales even without piracy, because the artificially created urgency (why do you thing so many people go see a movie in the opening week?) has gone.

There is no alternative for simultaneous release that doesn't hurt sales, piracy or not.

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#76

Post by AndyKelley » Tue, May 08, 2012, 6:22 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #74

Fatuous. A cam'd version of The Avengers is not a market substitute for seeing the movie in a theater. Of the movies you could possibly consider this way, The Avengers is among the least amenable to substitution via cam'd copies. All the widely-available torrents of The Avengers are cam'd or equivalent. There aren't screeners circulating. A DVD rip is a near-perfect substitute for a DVD (or a streamed version of the…

I don't think you read the entire article, which explained everything you said here quite clearly.

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#77

Post by potatolicious » Tue, May 08, 2012, 6:26 PM UTC

jakeonthemove wrote: post #71

The most mind boggling thing I've seen big studios do is block some trailers, promo videos or music videos in countries other than the US/UK/Canada or whatever their main market is. Why in the world would you ever do that? It makes absolutely no sense - they're blocking people in other countries from getting to know their new movie/single, which means those potential cinema goers and DVD/CD buyers either forget about…

> "Why in the world would you ever do that?"

Because the distribution rights probably belong to someone else in said countries. It's the same reason why some songs are available on iTunes in the US but curiously missing elsewhere.

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#78

Post by jcampbell1 » Tue, May 08, 2012, 6:43 PM UTC

rickmb wrote: post #75

jcampbell1 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am perplexed by your comment about overseas release dates. There has been an absolutely massive compression in release dates in the past 5 years. Most obvious blockbusters are now globally released, and the spread for smaller films has also been contracting. Avengers was released overseas prior to the US release. A film like The Descendants was released 4 weeks early in NY/LA, and then foreign releases were only 6…

This only involves the top blockbusters. For most other US produced movies the waiting time for releases can easily be well over 6 months. Besides, 6 weeks is still a long time in the age of instant global communication. Basically, all the hype and buzz surrounding a film starts well before the release and dramatically drops a week after. After a month, people have pretty much forgotten about it. This hurts sales eve…

I agree that simultaneous releases are best for sales, but that ignores reality. Lets assume 400 movies are screened per year in NY/LA, 200 widely in the US, and 125 in foreign theaters. It is simply not possible for all 400 movies to have a simultaneous global release. Theater owners must take a "wait and see" approach for many films.

I also don't agree with your 6 month figure, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Release dates are widely published. Comedies tend to have the slowest rollout because it takes time to prove that the humor translates well. Even with comedies, I can't find anything where the wide US release is 6 months before foreign releases.

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#79

Post by teamonkey » Tue, May 08, 2012, 7:12 PM UTC

tseabrooks wrote: post #4

Torrentfreak's articles seem to get better and better. They note the ways in which piracy is hurting films (foreign sales) and show some numbers indicating that in the US it doesn't appear to be hurting sales much at all. While obviously torrentfreak can't ever be considered objective in regards to piracy, they seem to be getting closer each time. Back on topic then, Does anyone have the background necessary to know…

> Torrentfreak's articles seem to get better and better.

I disagree. They're intensely biased, they select only information that suits their agenda and they spin reports and statistics shamelessly.

That's not to say that they're entirely worthless as a news source but they do have to be treated as a mouthpiece.

Re: The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record

#80

Post by sliverstorm » Tue, May 08, 2012, 7:14 PM UTC

nextparadigms wrote: post #23

bobsy wrote: post #19

A thing to note is that it was a CAM recording of the film that was leaked. I have only ever watched one cam recording of a movie before. I think it was 'The Illusionist.' I was at a friends house, he slapped it on. The color saturation was wrong, the sound was like mono and the camera appeared slightly off so the very top or bottom of the screen was cut off. It wasn't completely unwatchable but it spoiled the movie.…

Imagine how much money they could make if they released a 1080p HD version online, globally, 4 weeks at most after the launch in cinemas, and for a price of $5. That may or may not kill the cinemas in the long term, depending on how hard they fight to become more competitive and unique compared to watching the movie at home, but it would definitely not hurt the studios and movie makers. If anything, they stand to mak…

720p or 480p would be more realistic; the bandwidth costs for serving 1080p would chew through that $5 pretty quickly. (Assuming reasonable video bitrates) Besides, a very large chunk of consumers own machines that cannot handle 1080p.

Before you scream bloody murder, remember DVDs are only 480p.