Mike McGuireFar be it from me to be insensitive to the travails of the movie industry when it comes to the transition to an online world, or to cast aspersions on the fine reporting over at the New York Times, but this story is just … what’s the phrase the kids use, oh yeah, weak.
In the NY Times story, we are presented with a bleak, bleak picture: those nasty, amoral file-traders are winning the piracy “battle” with the studios. It notes that Warner Brothers carefully planned anti-piracy efforts intended to protect the “Dark Knight” were failures.
So, apparently, these file-traders are responsible for the horrible financial performance “Dark Knight.”
Um, no. Read this and get back to me, NYTimes and Hollywood, and get back to me. The story at the end of the link is a litany of all the box office records “Dark Knight” broke. Among the records: largest single day gross; fastest movie to $100m (two days).
To be fair, theatrical revenue is only part of any movie’s overall revenue stream, with DVD sales being an even bigger contributor over time. File-trading could very well dampen DVD sales, as mentioned in the NY Times story. OK, so file-trading putting DVD sales at risk is definitely something to be concerned about. Got it. Oh, except, ooops, maybe not so much.
Given the fact that noted industry observers are quoted in the NY Times story talking about how streaming off pirate sites means consumers don’t even have to download pirated content, maybe Hollywood could take a hint from that little nugget of reality.
Might I suggest that maybe, just maybe, that instead of gnashing teeth, wagging their fingers and wringing their hands, perhaps Hollywood could consider renegotiating licenses with some of these new-fangled online video sites like Hulu or Netflix’ stream service and maybe add a stream-only window that drops a week after the DVD sales window opens?
If anything is undercutting Hollywood’s ability to reconcile its business with the online world, it’s the industry’s singular inability to maintain any kind of perspective.
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1 response so far ↓
1 Chris Maxcer February 10, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Nice job catching this story. While I think a certain segment of our population is going to work hard to get content converted (pirated) free, the vast majority just want it easy to get at a reasonable price. Hulu et al is great, as is Apple’s Apple TV model.
By far the most annoying limitation on renting content online is the draconian 24-hour rule that gives you just 24 hours to view a movie before it expires. The Australians at least get 48 hours for iTunes movie rentals!
I would hope that our entertainment industry execs would be pushing to make legitimate purchases and rentals easy and attractive . . . whereas right now, it’s mostly just lame.