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

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

#41

Post by iamben »

frooxie wrote: post #32
iamben wrote: post #17

For me it usually comes down to the 'is it worth it?' Avengers was worth it - you knew it was going to be great in 3D, explosions, cinema sound, Iron Man, etc. Whilst I begrudged paying £16 (~$26 US) for me and the girlfriend (before even thinking about drinks / popcorn) we were always going to see it in the cinema. Compare that to a film that doesn't excite me (or most of the general population), and all of a sudden…

> Whilst I begrudged paying £16 (~$26 US) for me and the girlfriend Does this mean that you only had to pay $13 per person? In Sweden, a single ticket sells for $20.

It does, yeah (although doesn't include the price of 3D glasses). This was at an out of London cinema, thankfully. In the center of town you can easily pay $20+ pp.

Are you paying that right across Sweden? If so, how awful :-(

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

#42

Post by jetti »

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…

Then you would see complaints from retailers on DVD sales declining.

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

#43

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

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…

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 it with friends and colleagues. By the time it's out on DVD the moment could well have passed and my money has gone.

The cinema done right is a great experience and personally I don't think it's going anywhere. It doesn't matter how big my TV gets, I'll never have that social experience, the fact of getting out of the house where the phone won't ring and the door won't go, where I won't be tempted to pick up the iPad or whatever.

Watching at home, if done right, is a complementary market as much as it is a competitive one. And if it is competitive one then hey, what do they care if they're charging for it?

It's not going to be $5, probably more like $20 (think a couple of people, a couple of tickets equivalent, perhaps figure in the fact they can't upsell you popcorn and subtract some lower costs), but so long as the price seems fair next to the multiplex cost I'm fine with it.

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

#44

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

ktizo wrote: post #3
piquadrat wrote: post #2

Claiming a camcorded copy of a movie seriously impacts box office attendance is the same as arguing that concert bootlegs stop people from seeing artists on stage The direct impact of cam releases might very well be negligible. The bigger problem for the studios is that if word gets out that a blockbuster movie fails the expectations of its potential audience. That probability is much higher if there are CAMs availab…

The bigger problem for the studios is that if word gets out that a blockbuster movie fails the expectations of its potential audience. Surely advance screenings and reviews have exactly the same effect in that case.

Similar. Not having advance screenings is an even bigger red flag.

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

#45

Post by mseebach »

frooxie wrote: post #32
iamben wrote: post #17

For me it usually comes down to the 'is it worth it?' Avengers was worth it - you knew it was going to be great in 3D, explosions, cinema sound, Iron Man, etc. Whilst I begrudged paying £16 (~$26 US) for me and the girlfriend (before even thinking about drinks / popcorn) we were always going to see it in the cinema. Compare that to a film that doesn't excite me (or most of the general population), and all of a sudden…

> Whilst I begrudged paying £16 (~$26 US) for me and the girlfriend Does this mean that you only had to pay $13 per person? In Sweden, a single ticket sells for $20.

Cost of living in the Nordic countries is very high.

Here are the prices for tonight in a large mall-cinema in West London:

2D: http://booking.myvue.com/Home/My-tickets/cinema/westfield/ui...

(£8.90/£7.50 adult/student)

3D: http://booking.myvue.com/Home/My-tickets/cinema/westfield/ui...

(£12.05/£9.80 adult/student)

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

#46

Post by ilaksh »

I'll be honest, I downloaded the CAM version and it was crap to me, and someone had mentioned it was a great movie, so I went to the theater to see it because I didn't want to miss out.

I think the guy who released that CAM might have been doing the movie studio a favor because it might have made the next guy feel like he didn't need to do his own upload which might have been better.

If there was a good version available when I went to pirate it, I wouldn't have dragged myself to the theater.

I wanted to buy a large popcorn and soda with my cash when I got in there, but I only had $12 so I had to put it on the card.

I just wish they would release stuff on Amazon or iTunes (although I hate that program) the same day as it comes out.

Anyway, I spend way too much money on Amazon videos.

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

#47

Post by mikeryan »

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…

Interesting hypothetical.

Lets take a recent blockbuster. The first Twilight movie made $392,616,625 in the box office, $194,881,773 in DVD sales for a total of $587,498,398 (almost 600M - pretty good rake)

In your $5 they'd have to sell 117,499,679 of those $5 streams in order to make that equivalent revenue (so roughly one in every 60 people in the world need to buy a stream).

For more fun take the last Twilight Movie (Eclipse) which was a bigger draw ($826,423,724 total revenue). Then you'd have to sell 165M streams to get to those numbers.

Considering the $5 stream scenario could be shared across a family - I honestly am not sure your assumption that a studio could make more money is correct. The real X-Factor here is the cut the various distribution chains take.

I'm not sure your price point is right, but would you perhaps pay $20 for the same stream?

EDIT: Also I don't think the 4-weeks after theatrical release is going to work I don't think theaters are going to show your movie if you're going to kneecap them 4 weeks out.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Saga_(film_series)...

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

#48

Post by drewmclellan »

jetti wrote: post #42
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…

Then you would see complaints from retailers on DVD sales declining.

I think that's a reality that DVD retailers need to embrace sooner rather than later.

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

#49

Post by mayanksinghal »

> 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 significant part of the year.

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

#50

Post by its_so_on »

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.…

From your train of thought (starting with cam quality) I suspect you had it in mind, but you forgot the biggest reason in your list:

> Piracy has far more effect on DVD sales. This is for 4 reasons. The price of DVD's, the inconvenience of going out and getting the DVD, the bullshit adverts and unskipable junk before the film and the menu which takes 20 seconds to display before you can press PLAY.

You forgot to mention your main point about quality! The moment the DVD is released, the DVD is available to pirates for their dvdrips.

whereas you don't get a copy of the theater reel to play with just by buying a theater ticket, leading to the cam-rips you referred to. so, purely for that reason given that pirates distribute high-quality rips once they're available, you would expect this effect on DVD-sales to figure prominently in your list. (I'm sure you had it in mind but just forgot).

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