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It never ceases to amaze me how much influence the MPAA has. Movies, while extremely popular, don't generate that much money: in 2016, total box office results

It never ceases to amaze me how much influence the MPAA has. Movies, while extremely popular, don't generate that much money: in 2016, total box office results in the US were under $12bn [1]. That's the entire industry. Apple alone makes that much money in three weeks' time. Amazing, that you can apply such pressure to politics, with so little. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/187069/north-american-box-office-gross-revenue-since-1980/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/187069/north-american-bo...

digi_owl 9y ago
It's because so few care about copyright. It is seen as something dry and stodgy that only affect artists and their publishers/labels. This perhaps because once the cassette recorder, never mind the VCR, came to be, most nations on the western side of the wall decided to not go full police state and thus added a "friends and family" clause to their copyright laws. This meant that a person could create a copy, if it was meant for a direct friend or a relative. This avoided having to park a copyright cop in every home in the nation. Never mind that producing analog copies from tape to tape cause of a noticeable loss of content with each generation removed from the original. But the computer, never mind the internet, changed all that. It made mass copying not something that required massive machinery in a warehouse, but something every kid could do in their own home. Especially as bandwidth and storage capacity kept improving at a massive rate. And digital copies do not degrade like an analog one does.
- icebraining 9y ago
  The organizations also play a game of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Remember Home Taping Is Killing Music? By their propaganda, the music industry should have died multiple times in the past few decades.
- slantyyz 9y ago
  >> It's because so few care about copyright. It is seen as something dry and stodgy that only affect artists and their publishers/labels. This is because copyright relates to stuff that's usually intangible. People easily grasp the idea of theft when it comes to tangible, physical stuff. >> And digital copies do not degrade like an analog one does. True, but digital copies are for the most part still stored on media that can degrade, break or malfunction. In the context of places like TPB, digital copies are indeed degraded as they are often uploaded with lossy compression to reduce file size.
- otempomores 9y ago
  and they would have got away with it if it wasn't for those meddling hackers
wellboy 9y ago
What about licences for when the movies come out on dvd and are shown on the numerous tv channels in 100+ countries. I can imagine then this figure amounts to a multiple, maybe $40B? That's a large industry definitely and a powerful one.
- FanaHOVA 9y ago
  And streaming rights for Netflix/Hulu/Whatever other platform there is (lots of them). TV royalties are also paid every time the movie is aired.
  - wellboy 9y ago
    Indeed and this per year. So, you're looking at $700B over ten years?
ekianjo 9y ago
> Movies, while extremely popular, don't generate that much money: in 2016, total box office results in the US were under $12bn [1]. That's the entire industry. It's underestimated since it's a global business, plus they there's a very long tail for every movie to turn a profit, DVD/BR releases, TV, and online reselling, renting, etc... and the fact movies remain their property for 75 years+, and for some companies like Disney they retain the copyright forever, and keep sellings goods like cupcakes as well.
astura 9y ago
American box office results are far from the only source of revenue for movies. Their is foreign box office, DVD/Blueray sales, digital sales, digital rentals, streaming fees, and broadcast fees. In Blockbuster's heyday their revenue alone surpassed American box office sales.
- samwillis 9y ago
  Don't forget product placement, in film advertising, endorsements (both in film and around its marketing)... Oh and merchandising... that's a big one!
  - kbutler 9y ago
    Note that the value of product placement, in film advertising, endorsements, and merchandising all /benefit/ from the increased distribution of piracy. This suggests possible changes in business model, but it is really hard to give up an existing revenue stream in order to build future revenue streams that may fit the current world better, especially when the future revenue stream is currently small (e.g., music industry's fight against streaming, which is projected to become a larger revenue stream than physical sales had been - https://www.ft.com/content/94c5cdb0-4a26-11e7-a3f4-c742b9791d43 https://www.ft.com/content/94c5cdb0-4a26-11e7-a3f4-c742b9791...)
    - woolvalley 9y ago
      You can't make easy analytics with 'piracy reach', but I bet you could probably make some estimates by monitoring bit torrent.
jacquesm 9y ago
It's been noted that the most surprising thing about corrupt officials is not how many there are but how cheap they are.
1_2__4 9y ago
> Movies, while extremely popular, don't generate that much money But movies are part of Intellectual Property, which is the US's biggest export (in real dollars).

digi_owl 9y ago

It's because so few care about copyright. It is seen as something dry and stodgy that only affect artists and their publishers/labels. This perhaps because once the cassette recorder, never mind the VCR, came to be, most nations on the western side of the wall decided to not go full police state and thus added a "friends and family" clause to their copyright laws. This meant that a person could create a copy, if it was meant for a direct friend or a relative. This avoided having to park a copyright cop in every home in the nation. Never mind that producing analog copies from tape to tape cause of a noticeable loss of content with each generation removed from the original. But the computer, never mind the internet, changed all that. It made mass copying not something that required massive machinery in a warehouse, but something every kid could do in their own home. Especially as bandwidth and storage capacity kept improving at a massive rate. And digital copies do not degrade like an analog one does.

icebraining 9y ago
The organizations also play a game of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Remember Home Taping Is Killing Music? By their propaganda, the music industry should have died multiple times in the past few decades.
slantyyz 9y ago
>> It's because so few care about copyright. It is seen as something dry and stodgy that only affect artists and their publishers/labels. This is because copyright relates to stuff that's usually intangible. People easily grasp the idea of theft when it comes to tangible, physical stuff. >> And digital copies do not degrade like an analog one does. True, but digital copies are for the most part still stored on media that can degrade, break or malfunction. In the context of places like TPB, digital copies are indeed degraded as they are often uploaded with lossy compression to reduce file size.
otempomores 9y ago
and they would have got away with it if it wasn't for those meddling hackers

wellboy 9y ago

What about licences for when the movies come out on dvd and are shown on the numerous tv channels in 100+ countries. I can imagine then this figure amounts to a multiple, maybe $40B? That's a large industry definitely and a powerful one.

FanaHOVA 9y ago
And streaming rights for Netflix/Hulu/Whatever other platform there is (lots of them). TV royalties are also paid every time the movie is aired.
- wellboy 9y ago
  Indeed and this per year. So, you're looking at $700B over ten years?

ekianjo 9y ago

> Movies, while extremely popular, don't generate that much money: in 2016, total box office results in the US were under $12bn [1]. That's the entire industry. It's underestimated since it's a global business, plus they there's a very long tail for every movie to turn a profit, DVD/BR releases, TV, and online reselling, renting, etc... and the fact movies remain their property for 75 years+, and for some companies like Disney they retain the copyright forever, and keep sellings goods like cupcakes as well.

astura 9y ago

American box office results are far from the only source of revenue for movies. Their is foreign box office, DVD/Blueray sales, digital sales, digital rentals, streaming fees, and broadcast fees. In Blockbuster's heyday their revenue alone surpassed American box office sales.

samwillis 9y ago
Don't forget product placement, in film advertising, endorsements (both in film and around its marketing)... Oh and merchandising... that's a big one!
- kbutler 9y ago
  Note that the value of product placement, in film advertising, endorsements, and merchandising all /benefit/ from the increased distribution of piracy. This suggests possible changes in business model, but it is really hard to give up an existing revenue stream in order to build future revenue streams that may fit the current world better, especially when the future revenue stream is currently small (e.g., music industry's fight against streaming, which is projected to become a larger revenue stream than physical sales had been - https://www.ft.com/content/94c5cdb0-4a26-11e7-a3f4-c742b9791d43 https://www.ft.com/content/94c5cdb0-4a26-11e7-a3f4-c742b9791...)
  - woolvalley 9y ago
    You can't make easy analytics with 'piracy reach', but I bet you could probably make some estimates by monitoring bit torrent.

jacquesm 9y ago

It's been noted that the most surprising thing about corrupt officials is not how many there are but how cheap they are.

1_2__4 9y ago

> Movies, while extremely popular, don't generate that much money But movies are part of Intellectual Property, which is the US's biggest export (in real dollars).