When the film business loses theatrical presentation with an audience
and everything becomes
a video experience, whether on an ipod or in your eighty thousand
dollar home video rig,
then the cinema will have lost an important value it has in common
with theater - the shared experience with an audience.
Maybe that's the wave of the future, but I think there will be a
desire to have that audience experience.
Having said all that, ticket prices should be cut in half, budgets
for these movies are bloated, expectations of
blockbuster hits by the studios have created a pathology in the
business and dumbed down the viewer in the
process.
The theft of intellectual property is despicable. Why it is condoned
in Canada or anywhere is beyond me.
The price of concessions in in theaters is ludicrous, but the
percentage of the door that the exhibitors are left by the studios
is abusive.
I love the movies, but the entire business would benefit from a
couple of REALLY BAD years, in my opinion.
It could stand a good restructuring so that folks who have less money
to spend would get to go once in a while
without breaking the bank.
The same goes for the record business. The product is too damned
expensive. If CDs cost 40% of what they do today,
that would be just about the right price and the producers would sell
a ton more of them. And the inducement to
pirate would be much less.
Kirby McDaniel
www.movieart.net
On May 11, 2007, at 8:00 PM, Rubenstein, Ira wrote:
Next to Russia, CANADA is the single largest source of CAM Copies
of our films. I can't get into how they know this, but they do.
Maybe Freeman can speak to this, but theatres are really only good
at selling tickets and popcorn. There are a lot of young
employees at these chains across America. They struggle with just
keeping the popcorn going.
Years ago they tried to sell Movie Posters and other Film Related
product. TOTAL BUST. They can't do it. Don't have the space in
the lobby, don't have the expertise to merchandise, etc... Same
thing would be true for DVDs.
That being said, the time will come when the release windows will
collapse and you will see DVD's or On Demand Viewing of a film on
the same day. Just expect to pay a huge premium for that
benefit. And expect the Theatre Owners to fight it every way
they can. (You can ask Mark Cuban or read his blog, he has
tried it on his films)
Ira
From: MoPo List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
Bob Brooks
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 11:57 AM
To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Subject: [MOPO] A note from Dan...
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STUDIOS PULLING OUT OF SCREENING FILMS IN CANADA
Dear Movie Fans
Warner Brothers will no longer be "previewing" films in Canada.
They have cancelled screenings of Ocean's 13 , Harry Potter and the
new Nancy Drew film. WB is fed up with the laws of piracy in Canada
which (at this time) say that it's not illegal to videotape a movie
in a Canadian cinema. In fact all the theatre owner can do is ask
the person to leave the theatre. The only way charges can be laid
is if it can be proven that the person making the tape plans on
marketing the film commercially, which we all know is impossible to
prove. They estimate that 25% of all camcorder movies sold around
the world were shot in Canadian cinemas (what they don' t tell you
is the ethnic groups responsible for that but that would be
racist). 20th Century Fox has come on board saying that they are
thinking of releasing films in Canada a few weeks after they come
out in the U.S. due to this very problem.
So I say .... why not release the DVD's in theatres the same day as
the films are released theatrically?
Cut out Blockbuster and Rogers and Wall Mart and distribute the
films through the exhibitors (theatre chains). This way if you go
see a film at the theatre and really like it you can buy it on the
way out. You would also be permitted to buy the movie poster which
would also be available for sale there (give those people behind
the popcorn stand something to do when they are not selling popcorn
and Coke's for $15). This way the studios would only have to spend
advertising costs once and not twice (once when the film comes out
and once when it comes on DVD). You'll always get the people who
want to see the film on the big screen and for those of us who want
to watch it in our home, we can buy the movie at the theatre for
say $15.00 on the Monday after opening weekend. This way the
studios can get their big weekend grosses and recoup their budgets.
Then a few months later the studios can milk the release of the
special edition with bonus features and new endings and sell us the
Beatles White album all over again.
This would solve the problem of piracy and we can go back to having
screenings which I have been fortunate enough to watch for over 30
years until now.
Dan Rickard
The artist formally known as Dan of MoviePosterAuthentication
www.movieposterauthentication.com
Authenticating Movie Posters 1970-2000
PS-I'm clearing out my office at home next weekend and if you want
any movie material drop me a line at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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