It’s the movies, stupid
p2p news view / p2pnet:- Movie attendance numbers are declining because cinema goers are declining to waste their money on “films with “lame plots whose advertising campaigns seemed to be better thought out than their story lines”.
Sleeper hits such as the documentary March of the Penguins, “drew huge crowds via word of mouth without the benefit of splashy marketing, as evidence that if you give them a good reason, people will get in their cars, drive to theaters and pay dearly for a tub of popcorn”.
Who says so? The theater owners, states the Los Angeles Times, going on:
“Regal Entertainment Group, the nation’s largest theater chain with more than 6,300 screens, bluntly blamed Hollywood for its lower earnings in its second quarter, citing the steady diet of ‘unappealing films’ that the studios served up.”
In the meanwhile, the movie studio cartel is reporting record profits out of one side of its mouth, and blaming any and all perceived troubles on p2p file sharers, from the other.
The studios may have a point about downloads being responsible in some part, at least, for drops in attendance. But it’s not the one they’re trying to make.
Many people, especially those with families for whom a trip to the movies can mean a major cash expenditure of $50 and up, now use the p2p networks for reviews they can count on; their own.
Sony, for one, invented critic David Manning to rave review its releases. Sony was caught red-handed. But how many other Mannings are there?
Meanwhile, mums and dads, not to mention individuals who just plain don’t want to waste their hard-earned cash, can, and do, download a file from one of the p2p networks to see (literally) if the movie is worth the money.
It doesn’t matter if the download is low-res, jerky, has bad contrast and is pixelated all to hell. The idea is to scan through it to get a reliable idea of what the movie is like. And if the home-reviewer has a system/connection that’ll allow a high res download, all to the better.
Frequently (usually?), the movie isn’t worth a light, meaning individuals or families have saved themselves a lot of money.
That’s just an excuse put out by people to justify the fact they download?
We live in a small Canadian village and the nearest cinema is half-an-hour’s drive away. And we have a nine-year-old daughter, Emma, who, although she doesn’t watch enough TV to have her mind addled, is still exposed every now and then to the latest Hollywood drivel aimed at kids.
It goes like this:
- She tells me the name of the movie
- I use the Torrent Tracker at the top left of p2pnet pages to see if the flic has been posted
- If it has, I DL it and check it out
- Emma is of an age where just about anything is acceptable. But she’s home-schooled so she’s used to debate and it usually doesn’t take much to convince her she doesn’t really want to see the latest piece of dross to have caught her eye
The last movie we went to as a family was The Incredibles, which I’d ‘reviewed’ first from a download
So there you go, Hollywood. I’ve admitted it. I downloaded The Incredibles and watched it before I was ready to spend money on it.
And I’m 100% behind John Fithian, president of the US National Association of Theatre Owners.
“It’s the movies, stupid,” the LA Times has him declaring. “That’s what we’ve been saying all along.”
Jon Newton – p2pnet
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
Los Angeles Times – Flops Caused Box Office Slump, October 1, 2005
caught red-handed – Lawyers win in Sony farce, September 12, 2005
October 2nd, 2005 at 9:42 pm
I live in england, and lot of the time i see movies running in american(via the net) months before they arrive in britain. I also sometimes preview the ones that sound worth watching and if they are any good, i usually go see them on the big screen.
A good example would be – The Return Of The King(Lord of the rings). I downloaded this movie before it came out on my local theater, then after deciding it was a great film, i went to my local theater to enjoy it on the large screen in all it’s glory.
However the same principle works for others movies. If you download a dud, then you can safely save your money and report the findings to friends.
I think thats what scares the movie cartels the most. Usually they can make money from just the hype. Times have changed now, the digital generations can now preview movies and the general consensus about the quality of it gets around within days. This of course defeats the cartels marketing campaigns for dud movies. But that same consensus can also provide mass scale free advertising, if it’s any good.
October 2nd, 2005 at 11:23 pm
It not piracy that’s lowering movie attendence, it’s poor quality product and DVD sales that are preventing people from sitting in the theatres.
Why I don’t go to the movies like I used to:
1. A lot of mainstream movies are rubbish. Poorly thought out lowest common denomenator trash.
2. Tickets are expensive. I can buy the DVD to watch whenever I want for less than it costs for a pair of tickets.
3. I get better sound and picture from my home cinema setup than most theatres, especially if you don’t get a decent seat position in the theatre.
4. I don’t have to have a film ruined by noisy, ignorant, stupid people sitting around me who seem to want to do anything other than watch the movie.
Movie companies whine about piracy, but they are still making money from me, because I am buying DVDs rather than cinema seats. I guess as ususal we only hear about it when the MPAA think they are losing money, nothing about when they are making money hand over fist selling the same content on DVD.
October 3rd, 2005 at 6:46 am
They’ll never figure it out.
October 3rd, 2005 at 10:44 am
Yes, you heard me right. I like going to the movies and think it’s a lot of fun. But that’s only because attendence is nearly nil most of the time. Sure, it’s expensive (about $8.50 per adult), but that’s not nearly as bad as misbehaved kids or chatty adults in my opinion. It also helps that, even though I live in a very small city, we were lucky enough to get a brand new top of the line theatre built a few years ago which is now the only one we have. The old privately owned one was forced out of business I believe. The wife and I especially like going during the summer months. It’s a nice place to keep cool. During our cold winters we tend to stay home unless it’s something exceptional playing. We have a very good digital home theater, but it still can’t beat the fun of the theater. Especially the volume and floor rattling bass. We can’t turn up our subwoofer too loud since we live in an apartment. Generally I don’t see the people who work there as evil or the enemy. Their honest, helpful, friendly people trying to make minimum wage mostly. Concession stand is expensive, but at least they give free refills on some items which negates the cost a tad.
So there you have it. A home theater is great, rentals are cheap, and it’s all very conveniant, but it will never replace the fun factor of the theater. Speaking of fun, we went and saw Serenity today. Fantastic movie, the best I’ve seen this year. Almost paid to see it a second time. But then again the wife and I are fans of the original Firefly series (stupid Fox execs). I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if I had downloaded it (which I will do sometimes). Definitely going to buy the DVD when it comes out, and I’m even going to buy the soundtrack tomorrow if I can find it in stock somewhere.
October 3rd, 2005 at 4:08 pm
I’d like to ask her questions about many things such as reading, math, science, and history. I am willing to bet that Emma is smarter and better informed than about 95% of all the publically schooled kids. Quite a few years ago, I met a redneck woman who homeschooled her eight years old daughter. This woman did not seem to even have a high school education, so I began to feel sorry for the kid. I changed my mind very quickly when I decided to ask the kid a test question to see if in fact she knew anything. Boy did she!!! The little girl knew the Bill of Rights, the 10 Commandments, how to add, subtract, multiply and divide, and even basic science. I have been turned onto homeschooling ever since. I also find similar traits in just about every homeschooled boy or girl.
I am also willing to bet that there are things that Emma does not know as well. I bet that she does not know how to be blindly obedient to everyone who claims the role of authority figure, how to curse nearly as well as her publically schooled peers, or how to use government threat of force in order to defy her parents. I am willing to bet that she also has trouble thinking like a slave. Jon sets a great example of how a parent should be. He molds the mind of his children rather than let an innocent child’s mind be molded by the government-cartel alliance. If more people did what Jon does, the world would be a better and free-er place!
October 4th, 2005 at 8:41 am
Completely agree. Schools these days are just not conducive to learning.
You find yourself bombarded with text book information (that you could just as well obtain from a library) at a predetermined rate, without consideration about if the child is ready/willing to learn it. Usually it’s just memorizing facts, which doesn’t actually involve any kind of independent thinking/problem solving.
Schools are just there to get through the material as fast as possible with the objective of getting you out of the door into the next class. To hell with actually taking the time to understand and enjoy concepts.
Children should be allowed to develop at their own pace. And subjects they are interested in should be encourged, instead of forcing subjects they dislike upon them.
I’m sure some people find school was interesting, but i certainly didn’t. To me, it was simply yet another forced routine.
Only when i reached a more mature level did i start to enjoy learning. Teaching yourself subjects you enjoy, is very rewarding. Having things spoon feed to you isn’t. Being able to self learn through independent study is a valuble skill in life, and i firmly believe every child should be given the opportunity to do this for themselves.
October 4th, 2005 at 10:00 pm
I agree, except for the fact that she’s going to miss out on much of the social interaction that happens in school, whether it be good or bad.
October 19th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
— she’s going to miss out on much of the social interaction —
Not at all. We’re involved with other home-schooling families and we organize all kinds of activities for our kids. They also meet regularly just to play together.
Cheers!