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

torrentfreak.com

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

#121

Post by Natsu »

tptacek wrote: post #85
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entire article? He didn't even read the bold teaser, evidently. That was, indeed, the entire point of the article. There are a few sites that tptacek will insta-contrarian on HN. Torrentfreak is one of them. You know the xkcd comic about someone is wrong on the internet? Substitute "being wrong" for "generating rageviews with libertarian nerds" and that is tptacek. "Despite the widespread availability of pirated rele…

I read the entire article; my point is that it doesn't say anything. Did anyone think Avengers cams were what Hollywood is truly concerned about with BitTorrent?

> Did anyone think Avengers cams were what Hollywood is truly concerned about with BitTorrent?

They use night vision goggles & special cameras to locate people recording movies, and charge people with serious federal crimes for the act (the kind where you can get 3 years in prison) via a law enacted in 2005 [1]. Those huge, ugly brown spots you see flash on the screen? They exist to track cam pirates. They can also use audio distortions to pinpoint the exact seat the person is in to help them further narrow down the suspects.

Hollywood has a very odd way of showing a lack of true concern about cams.

[1] FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT AND COPYRIGHT ACT OF 2005 - http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/pl109-9.html

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

#122

Post by DeepDuh »

ekianjo wrote: post #114
DeepDuh wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan probably has one of the lowest piracy rates, so they don't seem to be forced to release earlier there. Japan's own media is even more backwards, most of their media never gets international releases although there is a big fansub scene. They don't seem to need the money.

> They don't seem to need the money. Oh no, they DO need the money, believe me. Most of their productions take years to just break even, and some never do. The reason why they are not actively pursuing international releases is linked to the way Japanese do business. Most of these media companies are very traditional and do not understand the opportunities outside of Japan. And even if they did, they'd need to get th…

I know. That sentence was of course sarcastic ;). It's a shame too, because a lot of their media has that special charm and its artistic value is sometimes quite high IMO (especially in the anime department).

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

#123

Post by rmc »

EvilTerran wrote: post #96
rmc wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes sense. However the film studio and the public have different interests, film studio want delayed releases, public want same releases. Now the public have the option of piracy. It's up to the film studios to run the numbers and decide if the boost from a delayed sale is worth the loss from piracy. The world has changed. Film studios (or candle markers) do no have a right to continue to make money the same way. T…

"The world has changed. Film studios ( or candle markers ) do no have a right to continue to make money the same way. They can adapt or die." Interesting comparison. My favourite is "weavers": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

Or people who manufactor VHS tapes, or shops that develop photographs, or people who repair record players, or people who sell records, or people who make horse draw carriage parts, etc. etc.

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

#124

Post by wyclif »

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 is true. I was in the Philippines when Avatar was released, and it was the same day as the US release. It used to be that you could see a new movie in the US and travel to SE Asia the next day and by the time you got there nobody would have seen it for weeks or months after.

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

#125

Post by delackner »

DeepDuh wrote: post #102
jswanson wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan still lags behind the US for most big-ticket films. Avengers won't open here until 2012/08/17, more than three months after the US release date. [1] That's a month ahead of the projected blu-ray release of the film though. It's really hit and miss, but most of the more major films lag by two to three months. 1 - http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%99%E3%83%B3%E3%...

Japan probably has one of the lowest piracy rates, so they don't seem to be forced to release earlier there. Japan's own media is even more backwards, most of their media never gets international releases although there is a big fansub scene. They don't seem to need the money.

Fansubs (japanese subtitles) of foreign movie releases? Where is this scene? I can't watch an english language movie with Japanese friends until the J release without J subtitles.

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

#126

Post by delackner »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #62
EvilTerran wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt there's a single soul outside the film industry who gives the slightest damn about whether the actors are at the first showing of a film in their country/continent/whatever.

Actors attending local premieres -> local press coverage -> increased local buzz -> increases ticket sales. It does help.

Maybe the actors visit a few of the largest markets. But they aren't going to go on a year-long press-junket for the premieres everywhere, regardless of how much of a delay there is. They are working on the next film. [edit: I wonder if this might be why so many movie-release events in Tokyo feature B-grade local celebrities as the spokesperson for the film. None of the actors could be bothered to fly over].

Why not just have ONE worldwide premiere, and journalists from various countries can cover that single meaningful event?

Japan is a huge market for international film releases, so some of the actors do show up once in a while, but not often and certainly not for most movies.

There are popular television shows that cover all the current Hollywood releases of the week, including those without any scheduled local release date. Lack of media attention is not the problem.

Inertia, fear of change, and localism (who cares about the rest of the world?) is the problem, but it is slowly but surely getting better.

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

#127

Post by delackner »

mayanksinghal wrote: post #49

> anti-camcording technologies [ http://torrentfreak.com/movie-spy-cameras-attack-the-dying-a... ] This is largely off-topic but I was wondering if there are any other popular anti-camcording technologies? Also could a large IR lamp facing the viewers (or aimed at screen) be used to disrupt the usage of camcorders? This will be additionally beneficial as a large part of the world requires heating solutions during sig…

This doesn't make any sense at all. You could easily defeat such a countermeasure by putting an IR filter over your lens. Dunno about camcorders, but usually DSLRs have such filters built-in to prevent IR from contaminating the sensor's input.

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

#128

Post by ekianjo »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #115
ekianjo wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most obvious blockbusters are now globally released Not true. Avengers is not even out in Japan yet. It wont be out until later summer (August). I can't believe they are delaying it for so long. And Japan is a BIG market for movies.

Japan is a unique market for movies. No good dubbing studios, a flaky box office, and weird taste in movies. Since you live there, and seem to have a good handle on English, I suggest you just pirate the movies and watch them in English. Japan is the exception to all my comments.

-- no good dubbing studio.

GOD you are damn right on this one. Dubbing studios in Japan are just horrible. Honestly i dont understand how Japan can both have excellent voice over studios for animation and extremely bad ones for western movies. There s something deeply wrong going on there.

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

#129

Post by ekianjo »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #115
ekianjo wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most obvious blockbusters are now globally released Not true. Avengers is not even out in Japan yet. It wont be out until later summer (August). I can't believe they are delaying it for so long. And Japan is a BIG market for movies.

Japan is a unique market for movies. No good dubbing studios, a flaky box office, and weird taste in movies. Since you live there, and seem to have a good handle on English, I suggest you just pirate the movies and watch them in English. Japan is the exception to all my comments.

For some movies i dont mind doing what you recommend, but for avengers theres no way i will settle with watching it at home. The same thing happened with Drive last year (its only out NOW in Japan) and that really pisses me off.

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

#130

Post by DeepDuh »

delackner wrote: post #125
DeepDuh wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan probably has one of the lowest piracy rates, so they don't seem to be forced to release earlier there. Japan's own media is even more backwards, most of their media never gets international releases although there is a big fansub scene. They don't seem to need the money.

Fansubs (japanese subtitles) of foreign movie releases? Where is this scene? I can't watch an english language movie with Japanese friends until the J release without J subtitles.

I meant the other way around: Japanese media with english subtitles. For tv series / animes have a look at dramacrazy.net; If you want western movies with Japanese subs I recommend iTunes with a Japanese account or Tsutaya if you are staying in Japan (maybe Hulu has also some stuff by now).
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