7 ms·
Essentially repeating the same BS analogies with the "would you steal a car" campaign 20 years ago. The commercial success of movies is measured at the cinema
by m000 7y ago
Essentially repeating the same BS analogies with the "would you steal a car" campaign 20 years ago.
The commercial success of movies is measured at the cinema screenings. This is implicitly accepted even by studios. When a film is labeled as a failure, it is because it didn't break even at the cinema. Given that, I'm all in for heavy-handed crackdown on pirating content still screening at cinemas.
Whatever comes after cinema screenings, is just milking the cow for as long as the current laws permit it. The problem in the case of USA, is that the law permits this virtually forever. So this is a case where the law is being antisocial, enforcing copyright protection of works that should have been in the public domain long time ago. Good for Swiss people that they're not living in a USA protectorate and they can have their own laws.
- ryandrake 7y agoIt's also the old "nothing would exist without scarcity and profit motive" argument. If Star Trek style replicators were invented today, there'd be people trying to ban them.
- tptacek 7y agoIsn't this, like, the opposite of the truth? Theater revenue is a small fraction of the total revenue from a film. From where did you draw the impression that it was otherwise?
- m000 7y ago"In the film and media industry, if a film released in theatres fails to break even by a large amount, it is considered a box office bomb (or box office flop), thus losing money for the distributor, studio, and/or production company that invested in it." [1] Also keep in mind that Hollywood typically inflates costs to avoid taxes and royalties [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biggest_box-office_bombs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biggest_box-office_bom... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
- tptacek 7y agoYeah, you haven't answered the question. A box-office bomb does badly at the box office; that's all it means.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- m000 7y agoYeah, you're not very good at reading. What part of "thus losing money for the distributor, studio, and/or production company that invested in it" did you miss? Would "box office flop" even exist as a term if the box office was not the main source of revenue for films? And since we're here, from where did you draw the impression that it was otherwise?
- tptacek 7y agoFrom a source that actually broke down revenue from movie releases between box office and home viewing, thus refuting your original argument?
- likpok 7y agoI've seen some industry insiders talk about how box-office takings effectively "snapshot" later earnings. So the TV syndication rights or streaming rights will pay out based on the box office (and possibly even just the opening weekend). Certainly this isn't always true: The Room has been running for a long time, and is now presumably much more valuable than its initial box office would suggest. But I don't think that most movies become cult hits, and their revenue is probably closely related to initial box office. I don't have a source for this beyond reddit comments though.