‘Sith’ box-office record breaker
p2pnet.net News:- Revenge is sweet, according to the record-breaking box-office receipts reported for the opening weekend of the sixth and final installment of the “Star Wars” film saga, says MarketWatch on the success of Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
Having grossed $158.5 million from Thursday to Sunday, ‘Sith’ now stands as online ticket seller Fandango Inc’s top-selling movie for opening weekend sales. The first two days of the movie’s release, Thursday and Friday, were Fandango’s top selling 48 hours.
Ever.
So – where does that put Dan ‘Darth’ Glickman, the boss of the movie studio cartel’s MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) who’s been screaming about the appearance of Sith online?
“Fans have been lined up for days to see Revenge of the Sith,” he raged. “To preserve the quality of movies for fans like these and so many others, we must stop these Internet thieves from illegally trading valuable copyrighted materials on-line.”
But online viewing clearly had no appreciable effect on audience attendance, any more than file sharing on p2p networks has had serious adverse effects on other releases – movies or music.
To the contrary, seeing a film on a computer tempts people to the movie houses rather than keeping them away.
Watching a movie on even a 21” box in no way compares to the real thing on the giant screen with seat-shaking surround-sound.
Tellingly, when Glickman was doing his Shocked and Horrified spiel, he didn’t trouble to mention that the online Sith was a working copy leaked by a Hollywood insider.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
MarketWatch – ‘Sith’ sets new four-day record, May 23, 2005
tempts people – Hollywood Star Wars leak, p2pnet, May 21, 2005
May 24th, 2005 at 4:41 am
I know if I had downloaded it I would still have went to see it the two times that I have already seen it one being at 12:01 A.M. thursday morning and Saturady nite. I’m going to see it yet agian sometime this week. If I were to say download it before AI go the 3rd time I would still go see it and possible a 4th time. And then when it came out I would buy it even though I would already have a copy. I mean when you have a good movie downloading is gona hurt the sales now maybe it would on a movie that looks like crap and only a few people like, which is a lot of the crap that the movie industry has been putting out. OIn which case sales need to be put down by downloads so they won’t make another crapy movie like that.
May 25th, 2005 at 8:37 am
I started downloading the workprint that was released. Went to the cinema to watch it. Came home and watched all the bits i really enjoyed again. I paid my £5, i should be allowed to watch it as much as i like.
Its true some people will still not see it in the cinema but its their loss. No big screen or proper surround sound etc. Even if a lot of people just watch a downloaded copy its not like Mr Lucas has lost any profits, he has made hundreds of millions from it in the first week!