Cinemark threatens to boycott 'Tower Heist' over VOD experiment

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by The Theory

Does everybody download? Of course not. But to imply that few people aren't downloading movies still in theaters because of quality issues or an inability of knownig where to look? Wrong.

Yes, but point was EVERY SINGLE EXECUTIVE IN THE INDUSTRY believes that every single man-woman-and-children-jack civilian in the continental US who owns a home computer is secretly digging up six movies on Pirate Bay every night (because that's what they heard in the news headlines), and "that's" what crippling the industry and hurting DVD and ticket sales.
We've had three directors who, immediately after a bad opening weekend, claimed their films flopped because the "pirates had gotten to it first". Gosh, what an efficient and easy-to-use all-purpose boogeyman--Since neither side really has the slightest technical idea of how it works, you can't prove it isn't happening, now, can you?

I get the same kind of stereotypic tech-paranoid guff as a Japanese-anime fan, and I can vouch: The nuts getting the headlines are a freak fringe.
Those who do pirate do it because of some hacker thrill that they Can, and most of those are indulging some paranoid rebel-without-a-cause fantasy that they're "sticking it to the system". Not that this will stop the studios from looking for fantasy scapegoats.
Most normal video fans I come into contact with pretty just look at the angry nuts as "", and wait for the increasingly inevitable legitimate release. And that's out of those who DO know how to get the darn things on disk once you download them.

[wormraper]

I'm sorry but some of you get bit in the ass on ticket prices it seems!!! even if 10 of us split the cost of the movie that $6 each (+ tax most likely ). I can go to my local AMC or Tower theater and Mon-Thursday get $5 before 6pm and $7 after 6pm. no "parking" cost, and concessions? we just bring them in in our backpacks. AND we get to see it on a screen 3 times the size of even MY projector screen.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by The Theory

Speaking of reality-checking...

1. Most copies of movies floating around on the internet while said movie is still in theaters are NOT seat-o-vision bootlegs. I am not intimate enough with the proccess to really know where they come from, but the quality is along the lines of "you wouldn't know it wasn't a legit viewing experience if it didn't keep flashing 'do not copy' on the screen".

Yes, many of them are screener copies that are DVD-like in quality. Even the "seat-o-vision" copies have improved over the years thanks to high def camcorders and the "videographers" going to the theater in the middle of the day when there's few patrons. I suspect many of them are theater employees.

2. I have quite a few non-techy friends who have no trouble finding these downloads and sharing them. Either the P2P sites/clients they're using are fairly easy to find, or the whole "word of mouth" thing does the trick

It's not too challenging find bootlegs to download. Google isn't difficult to use.

Most of us here want to watch movies on Blu, with the best quality picture/video. But unfortunately, many don't care like we do... especially the younger folks.

[Cinemave]

I can't see spending $60 for Tower Heist, but then again people pay $45 for wrestling matches on Cable. If it were the right movie and I had a bunch of friends that wanted to see it, maybe....

[toddly6666]

I still don't get it. It would make sense to charge $60 before theatrical release (as Time Warner does with their $9.99 charges for movies released on demand before theatrical release), but why charge that much after theatrical release when one can see it for cheaper in the theater?

[MrFattBill]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

I still don't get it. It would make sense to charge $60 before theatrical release (as Time Warner does with their $9.99 charges for movies released on demand before theatrical release), but why charge that much after theatrical release when one can see it for cheaper in the theater?

People don't want to get off their couch.

Bill

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Cinemave

I can't see spending $60 for Tower Heist, but then again people pay $45 for wrestling matches on Cable. .

Yeah, but that's just it:
The only people who BUY PPV-exclusive events anymore are the high-school Howard Stern zombies and the WWE/Ultimate Fight fans, and they stank it up into its own niche-ghetto that now doesn't offer anything else.

Nowadays, anyone with a class PPV act saves it for the in-theater Fathom events, but then, that would rather defeat the whole "Stay at home" point...

[Cinemave]

Another thought. It's a big country and some people might have to travel quite a distance to see a first run movie. With the price of gas, invite your farmer friends over and do a movie at home and save the drive. But they wouldn't be going to the theatre anyway would they?

[The Theory]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Yes, but point was EVERY SINGLE EXECUTIVE IN THE INDUSTRY believes that every single man-woman-and-children-jack civilian in the continental US who owns a home computer is secretly digging up six movies on Pirate Bay every night (because that's what they heard in the news headlines), and "that's" what crippling the industry and hurting DVD and ticket sales.
We've had three directors who, immediately after a bad opening weekend, claimed their films flopped because the "pirates had gotten to it first". Gosh, what an efficient and easy-to-use all-purpose boogeyman--Since neither side really has the slightest technical idea of how it works, you can't prove it isn't happening, now, can you?

You're confusing what executives say and what executives think. I don't know what executives think because I'm not an executive. I'm willing to bet you're not, either. But what I do know is that they have a very good idea of how often their movies are being illegally downloaded. They can (and do) track this.

And of course they (directors/executives) are going to use downloading as an excuse. What do you expect them to say? "Our movie sucks and the box office reflected that?"

I get the same kind of stereotypic tech-paranoid guff as a Japanese-anime fan, and I can vouch: The nuts getting the headlines are a freak fringe.
Those who do pirate do it because of some hacker thrill that they Can, and most of those are indulging some paranoid rebel-without-a-cause fantasy that they're "sticking it to the system". Not that this will stop the studios from looking for fantasy scapegoats.
Most normal video fans I come into contact with pretty just look at the angry nuts as "", and wait for the increasingly inevitable legitimate release. And that's out of those who DO know how to get the darn things on disk once you download them.

...well, here I think you're completely off base. You've been reading too many postings on ANN and believing that those forum members represent the lion's share of anime fans.

With regular movies at least a person can claim that the wide demographic sphere represented would leave many people at a technological disadvantage. But with anime most of the demographic falls within the teenager/early-20s arena. There are outliers, of course, including myself. But the main target (in the US) for anime is the exact age group which grew up with the internet and which refuses to pay for anything that they can get for free.

At college I've met a LOT of anime fans. Among them I'm the only one who actually has a physical anime collection--for them, their collection is on their hard drive. Talk about a series and they'll say "Oh yeah, I've been meaning to download that..." or "I'll grab it via torrent"... or my favorite, "It's on my external but haven't gotten around to it yet..."

Luckily, at least with anime, things are moving in the direction of legal simulcast streaming on sites like ANN, FUNimation, and Hulu. Movie studios have no such recourse (that makes sense) at this point. They just have to sit tight.