UK Record year for the movies
p2pnet.net News- While Hollywood raves that it’s suffering terribly from the depredations of file sharers and counterfeiters around the world, a “record number of people visited cinemas in Western Europe in 2004, with admissions reaching 896.6 million, an increase of nearly 50 million on 2003,” says the BBC.
The situation is obviously not the same in Bollywood, however. There, the major studios’ MPA (same as Motion Picture Association of America, without the ‘America’) was recently given carte blanche to terrorize the denizens of Delhi and the Indian government says it’s, “taken several steps to curb piracy, which is resulting in heavy losses for the entertainment industry”.
Meanwhile, “Ireland, Greece and Austria are expected to join the UK as the four countries with the greatest growth in cinema admissions over the next five years,” says the Beeb, suggesting the wolf is far from the Big Seven studio cartel’s door, its protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.
And, “Spain is likely to join the UK, France and Germany as a $1bn box office market by 2009,” says the story, adding:
“More than half all cinemas in Western Europe are now housed in multiplexes, with continued growth anticipated in Italy, Greece and Portugal. The development of multiplexes continues to push up ticket prices, with an increase of 10% predicted over the next five years.”
The situation is also good in the US where movie house returns rose to $9.5 billion, and in Canada, in 2003/4, Hollywood increased its revenues by nearly 5% and its profit margins by 22%.
Times are indeed hard for the folks in the movie industry.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
BBC – Cinema admissions ‘on increase’, July 29, 2005
carte blanche – Hollywood helps Bollywood, p2pnet, July 29, 2005
also good – Record year for the movie studios, p2pnet, March 17, 2005
increased its revenues – 2005: movie industry boom year, p2pnet, July 25, 2005
July 30th, 2005 at 6:02 am
Hollydud and the music cartel have many things that are entirely different when trying to compare them, yet they have many things in common also.
The music cartel gets its income by shafting everyone in sight. Customers, artists, the employed worker in the sound studio, you name it and somewhere there is a scheme to milk it. Much of that scheme requires what most of us would call “creative accounting” in that numbers can be juggled to whatever is needed given enough time and enough spin. The grip of the cartel is everything in seeing what goes on and who does it, tee off the industry and you can pack it up and go home.
Hollydud isn’t the same way when it comes to the artist, it still maintains the creative accounting. It pays its actors a one time fee and unless there is some different agreement the rest of the money remains the studios. In spin doctoring, they are both past masters. The phrase “You will never work in this town again”, comes originally from Hollydud. It too shows the control over the process and who gets to work (if at all) and who doesn’t. That isn’t a matter of finances, like the cartels it is a matter of control.
Both of these industries are crying their eyes out for more protection, more help, more laws, yet neither have yet to produce and show hard data showing it is so. Every consumer of media pays the price for these claims. Around the world, not just in one country. Within recent years the industries have managed to kill fair use when dealing with digital data. Getting laws to support this action around the world and many instances can be seen where active shutdowns are occuring in software over this idea. Both industries have been so successful that they are making hay before the pendulum swings away from allowing protectistic laws to be passed.
The hype is beginning to change the viewpoint that they need such strengthening of such laws. The music cartels have been caught in what should become the latest scandel over breaking laws that were already on the books and put in place to terminate the payolla actions. Everytime in the past that payolla has come up, money and influance has pored forth to terminate the investigation and end the threat. Hollywood has had its share of scandels also.
Both are becoming industries to hate and loathe for their dirty and shady dealings. I have no sympathy for their not being able to give the CEO an extra few billions this quarter because they didn’t sell enough at the ticket office or didn’t lay off quite enough workers.
July 30th, 2005 at 11:09 am
It’s a pity, it’ll be really good to destroy the more-than-useless entertainment (propaganda would fit better) industry. Fight capitalism, don’t go to theater, don’t buy cds/dvds (they’re pollution anyway).