Piracy Fails To Prevent Another Box Office Record (torrentfreak.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The movie industry has reported global box office records reached $38.4 billion in 2015, up 5% on 2014's total, according to the MPAA's Theatrical Market Statistics report. The U.S. and Canada turned in $11.1 billion with international box office revenues hitting $27.2 billion. "I'm proud to say that the state of our industry has never been stronger," the former U.S. senator, MPAA chairman and CEO Chris Dodd said. "To paraphrase Mark Twain, the death of the movies has been greatly exaggerated," Dodd said. It begs the question whether or not piracy is truly killing the movie business -- the MPAA insists it is. According to Dodd, the box office would be more healthy to the tune of $1.5 billion if piracy could be brought under control. Some possible theories to achieve such a goal would be based off making content more readily available to the consumer. Napster co-found Sean Parker has a Screening Room project which hopes to bring first-run movies into the home via a set-top box. Though it has a trick up its sleeve: Customers prepared to pay the required $50 to watch at home would get two tickets to watch the movie in the cinema, which could either boost or at least maintain box office attendance. The Art House Convergence (AHC) said it "strongly opposes" the plan, warning it would only fuel torrent sites and piracy. National Assosciation of Theatre Owners chief John Fithian said, "More sophisticated window modeling may be needed for the growing success of a modern movie industry."

Comments

Deadpool

[MightyMartian]

Considering Deadpool has alone has made over $750 million dollars globally, on a budget of less than $60 million, and that's not counting big blockbusters of late like Star Wars VII and even Batman vs Superman, I think claims of the movie industry's demise are heavily overstated. Hell, Deadpool and Star Wars are still playing on screens near where I live.

Yes, there have been flops, but I doubt anyone can link those flops to pirating.

Re:Flawed logic

[MightyMartian]

That's not the argument at all. The argument is that the claims that any film industry financial problems are due to pirating is rubbish. That's not a defense of pirating, that's a statement that the MPAA's frequently floated claim is garbage.

Now, the music industry, on the other hand, is another matter. I guess it comes down to the point that people think music is worth less than movies.

It raises the question

[Anonymous Coward]

"To beg the question" does not mean what you think it means.

Re:It raises the question

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it isn't. "Begging the question" is a legal term referring to a statement that implies fact not in evidence. The article uses it wrongly (like most people to) to assert that a given statement leads to or implies a question, which is wrong. "Raises a question" means exactly what he says it does. A question can be raised by a statement or another question. So, it is YOU that is the idiot.

Re:Flawed logic

[sims 2]

I would go as far to say that the DRM they have added to everything already costs more than piracy.
Just in terms of time wasted things not working and general bull$hit.

Broadcast flag, HDCP, securom, oh and lets not forget the sony rootkits and so on.

The Anti-movie industry Resistance manifesto!

[fyngyrz]

I do it because I want the movie industry to die.

Just remember, the movie industry wants you to die too, metaphorically speaking; and they have law, punishment, and money on their side. They can break you financially; they can have you sent away; they can see to it that you become highly undesirable to employers. And the kicker is, they really, really want to do those things to you and all those like you.

I applaud your willingness to fight for what you want. I will also applaud when they catch you and, in their willingness to fight, ruin your life. Where's my popcorn? I'm going to need some salt and a glass of Mountain Dew, too. :)

Re: Flawed logic

[BronsCon]

Whether or not it is "ok" bears no relevance to whether or not it is "stealing" or "theft". There are a great many things which are neither stealing nor theft, which are also not ok. But then, you knew that, just like you knew your logical fallacy was bullshit before you typed it.

Re:I'll tell you where the theft is

[Anonymous Coward]

The law says piracy is not theft. All logic and semantics be damned; the law is clear.

Copyright Infringement is illegal, but it is not theft. They are covered under different sections of law, have different enforcement regulations and different penalties.

Discussion over.

Re:Flawed logic

[ewibble]

Here I have taken money that you can show what you would have gotten, if it was not for the lie.

If someone watches the concert through the window, you have lost money only if that person would have gone to the concert otherwise. They may have, they may not have, they may go to your next concert because they liked what they saw.

Just because someone pirates a movie, and if this is stealing, and the law as consistent, for a criminal case you should have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they would have paid for it anyway. I don't think you could even prove it beyond balance of probabilities.

You have to prove murder beyond a reasonable doubt, is "stealing" intellectual property so much worse that we have to lower the standard of proof.

The answer is you are not stealing but you are committing copyright infringement which is different.

Re:"More sophisticated window modeling"

[ArmoredDragon]

This isn't really a copyright thing so much as it is somebody using their influence to control distribution.

Think like how you have to buy a car through a dealership, or how in certain regions and industries you can't buy labor without paying the local mafia^H^H^H^H^H union.

Re:landlubbers abound

[R3d M3rcury]

I on the other hand balk at the fact that a 10 year old tv show is still $25/season (for SD).

In their defense, 10 years ago many shows were shot on video tape in SD (or maybe a little better) because it was going to air in SD and people would be watching it in SD and why spend the extra money to do film?

As an old example, the original Star Trek was shot on film. They did this originally because there wasn't an easy way to do special effects with video tape. But everything was optimized for an SD screen. 50 years later, they still had the high resolution film, so they could start with that and redo the special effects, fix some of the background issues (e.g. walls painted with chalk that is blatantly obvious in HD), and come up with something pretty good.

But, at least as I understand it, Star Trek: The Next Generation was shot on video tape because, by 1987, they could do visual effects on a computer. So there is no "high resolution master" for TNG episodes. I believe that's also true with Deep Space 9 and Voyager. I think the second season of Enterprise was the first to actually film with High-Def cameras.

Personally, I agree with you. I balk at paying $25 for an old TV Show--even a favorite. But in regards to SD/HD, they may not really have a choice...