Hollywood Sets $10 Billion Box Office Record 276
kamikazearun sends in a TorrentFreak analysis that begins "Claims by the MPAA that illegal downloads are killing the industry and causing billions in losses are once again being shredded. In 2009, the leading Hollywood studios made more films and generated more revenue than ever before, and for the first time in history the domestic box office grosses will surpass $10 billion. ... [N]either the ever-increasing piracy rates nor the global recession could prevent Hollywood having its best year ever in 2009. With an estimated $10.6 billion in consumer spending at the US and Canadian box office, the movie industry will break the 2008 record by nearly a billion dollars."
How the MPAA thinks: (Score:5, Funny)
"We could have made 20 Billion if it weren't for all of those pirates!"
Re:How the MPAA thinks: (Score:5, Insightful)
You forgot the next bits...
"Then by doubling ticket prices, changing a few laws and ripping our customers off repeatedly we can make that 30 billion."
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So, what's 30 billion minus 20 billion? Uhh...
80 billion! Doubling ticket prices, changing some laws and ripping off customers will make them 80 billion dollars.
Re:How the MPAA thinks: (Score:5, Insightful)
"We could have made 20 Billion if it weren't for all of those pirates!"
Don't worry, they'll simply sue ten thousand people for a million dollars each to get their money back. They may need a government bailout in the meantime. Nearly every single one of your elected officials have enjoyed soft money from the MPAA to ensure that everyone rolls over and sits when the MPAA instructs them to.
Re:How the MPAA thinks: (Score:5, Insightful)
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Hollywood has never turned a profit.
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Re:How the MPAA thinks: (Score:5, Informative)
Wikipedia has a nice explanation of Hollywood Accounting [wikipedia.org].
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"We couldn't have made 10 Billion if it weren't for all of those music pirates!"
Fixed that for you.
And I mean it. Movies have the benefit of being social occasions, where groups of kids go to see a movie and share their thoughts after etc. It's a fraction the cost of a concert by the pop musicians they download, and recorded music doesn't stand a chance for their entertainment dollar. "Hrm, should I actually buy one of the 500 CD's I've downloaded, or should I try to make out with that new girl during Twilight, having already downloaded it too to see that it sucks..."
Re:How the MPAA thinks: (Score:5, Informative)
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Biggest ever gross revenue.
Less profit per movie.
Fewer movies made.
That doesn't mean "movies are shit", because with fewer movies and the biggest gross revenue ever, they have either had the higher ticket prices or more tickets sold. Since 2008 was about 10 billion and 2009 is ~10.6 billon we're looking at an 6% increase in ticket prices or ticket numbers. Probably a mix of the two.
But if fewer movies were released in 2009 vs 2008, then the 6% increase in ticket prices/ticket numbers won't cover it.
What is
Re:How the MPAA thinks: (Score:5, Insightful)
No, but it is justification to call the "problem" of copyright infringement insignificant.
It is also justification for the viewpoint that copyright as it stands now is more than adequate to ensure more production of works. Were it not, they would have produced LESS each year. Since that is the only Constitutional purpose of copyright, we need add no more protections.
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And it shall remain insignificant as long as the common person cannot see a theatre-screen-sized, hd quality rip of movies. What I love is that noone ever blames their lack of profit in either recording industry on the possibility that their product just wasn't worth buying....
Re:How the MPAA thinks: (Score:5, Insightful)
When Stan Lee had to sue to get his cut of the proceeds from SpiderMan, I started to look at the MPAA's kvetching about pirates
with a jaundiced eye. If they want us to care about alleged copyright infringement, then don't try to fuck over the icons that made us
into fans and made them rich(er).
Re:How the MPAA thinks: (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, people seem to always forget that the original purpose (however flawed) of copyright was ostensibly to protect the authors from .... the publishers, distributors and all sorts of assorted middle-men, since at that time those were the only people (and I use the term loosely) who had access to equipment capable of mass duplication of works of art.
Fast forward 200 years or so and you have the artists back in the dog-house and the assorted middle-men controlling everything. Which only encourages them to bray louder about being robbed by "copyright violators" while stiffing the artists at every opportunity ... a grand monument to the power of corruption of laws and societies by shameless, vicious, malignant greed.
Incidentally this behaviour, of preemptively and rabidly accusing everyone else in sight of the very crimes one is committing himself, is very common amongst various villains in all walks of villainy, such as career politics for example.
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> So, the success of the Music / Entertainment Industry is justification to pirate?
> We hate them and can rip them off because they are rich? Well, because that's what
> the whining here sounds like.
No. It's justification to ignore their drama queen antics and cries for further legal concessions.
Clearly the status quo is fine for them. They don't need any new laws. They don't even need
many of the recent changes to the law. They certainly don't require mass prosecutions, the
wholesale destruction of p
Um, what about inflation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Um, what about inflation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well my paycheck doesn't, so why the hell should Hollywood's?
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Re:Um, what about inflation? (Score:5, Interesting)
Inflation would need to be nearly 10% for Hollywood to not have higher inflation adjusted revenues this year than last year.
Re:Um, what about inflation? (Score:5, Informative)
Inflation would need to be nearly 10% for Hollywood to not have higher inflation adjusted revenues this year than last year.
And we've had deflation since March. The highest inflation rate since 2008 has been 5.6%.
Current Inflation [inflationdata.com]
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And we've had deflation since March.
If by "deflation" you mean that the dollar has lost a quarter of its value.
Re:Um, what about inflation? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Um, what about inflation? (Score:5, Funny)
Speaking of innovations, there's this wonderful new invention for writers called the paragraph.
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Why is it that news stories about movie revenues never take inflation into account?
From the summary: "With an estimated $10.6 billion in consumer spending at the US and Canadian box office, the movie industry will break the 2008 record by nearly a billion dollars."
If inflation were somewhere around 10%, I would imagine that we'd have bigger problems to deal with.
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Or simply ticket stubs sold?
typical spin job (Score:2, Insightful)
If the box office receipts were way DOWN, someone here would post, "Clearly, the Hollywood moguls are out of touch with what moviegoers are interest in seeing. Maybe they should stop taking two martini lunches and doing coke in the back of stretch limos with starlets, and stop hiring yesterday's stars like Tom Cruise for $20 million a flick. Hello? That, not downloading, is what ails Hollywood today".
And every post contributing in support of that conclusion would be modded up. Maybe we'll get that a yea
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Of course Slashdot is going to spin everything its own way; what else would you expect? I don't really know enough about the numbers, but there is a saying around here that correlation != causation; I would caution that just because Hollywood is setting box office records doesn't mean piracy doesn't hurt them. Obviously it doesn't to the extent they would like you to believe, but sometimes I wonder what would happen if piracy were not an option; would more people buy more copies, or would they just make d
Re:typical spin job (Score:4, Interesting)
While trying to avoid putting too much spin on it, I'd rather just look at it in context.
$10 billion dollars means they took $1.50 from every man, woman and child on the plant.
While piracy may be hurting them, don't you think that a $10 billion profit means perhaps, just perhaps, the cost of their product is STILL TOO HIGH ?
And if they did a little bit of supply / demand analysis, by maybe only skinning a buck instead of a buck fifty, piracy might actually go down as the product would be *more* accessible (read cheaper) for the masses ?
Hollywood Traditionally Does Well In Recessions (Score:5, Interesting)
There was an article a while back (no I can't find it with the 2 minutes of searching I did) where a magazine compared the ticket sales of economic recessions during the 90's and early 2000's. The summation of the article was that even with major blockbuster films, like Starwars ep 1, Hollywood made less money than the year before because times were good and people were doing things besides going to the movies, but in economic downturns they actually made more money. The theory was that audiences will attend movies to distract them from all the problems that they have instead of stewing in them.
I'll post it if I can find it but the laziness is running deep tonight.
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Re:Hollywood Traditionally Does Well In Recessions (Score:5, Informative)
That's why births tend to spike 9 months after a days-long power outage. Not a whole lot else to do to entertain yourself ;)
While it is an entertaining idea, it is false [snopes.com].
Re:Hollywood Traditionally Does Well In Recessions (Score:5, Funny)
While snopes.com is an entertaining idea, it is false [whygrr.com].
Proposed Anti-Anti-Piracy Advertisement (Score:5, Interesting)
Someone should make an anti-anti-piracy ad with the same exact thing except when they look up they say, "I can't feed my family
Odds that the profits from this revenue make it back to the people who genuinely need it to keep the system healthy? Slim to none. Executive producer gets more executive while life risking stunt double gets poorer.
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Back in college I saw an ad before a movie where a stunt double, key grip and other low paid stagehands
In the USA, pretty much everyone 'backstage' in the movie business is part of a union.
That's why so many movies are made in Canada, Prague, or other random foreign countries: lower labor rates.
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"Canada, Prague, or other random foreign countries"
Its good to know that geography teaching is US schools is reaching such high levels, despite the constant job losses!
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Indeed. Everyone knows that being a country requires you to have some non-beaver residents.
Re:Proposed Anti-Anti-Piracy Advertisement (Score:4, Funny)
I think they were referring to the fact that Prague is actually another planet.
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canada and australia have unions too.
its mostly just maximizing the value of the dollar, cost of supplies, etc. also getting the best deals on appropriate locations.
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> Then they would look up and say something to effect of, "I can't feed my
> family."
And you believed it. Sucker.
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Back in college I saw an ad before a movie where a stunt double, key grip and other low paid stagehands were filmed in front of their families, eating and doing things with them. Then they would look up and say something to effect of, "I can't feed my family. Because thieves steal my work online."
If I remember correctly, the amusing part of that is that the only ones that get paid royalties are the big-name groups, like the writer, director (I think), and actors. I don't think any of the construction workers, camera operators, or costume designers get anything other than a straight salary.
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People like writer, producer and director are "above the line" items, and everyone else is "below the line".
All the "below the line" items start at union award rates, and "above the line" items start at 10% of the budget (i.e. add up everything else, then add 10% for each person in that category). It's only a starting point - obviously anyone with a na
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"If I remember correctly, the amusing part of that is that the only ones that get paid royalties are the big-name groups, like the writer, director (I think), and actors. I don't think any of the construction workers, camera operators, or costume designers get anything other than a straight salary."
This confused a LOT of file sharing enthusiasts back when those ads were running. You're right, of course, that the trade and craft folks are paid on a salary, but the straw man here is assuming that the ads we
Re:Proposed Anti-Anti-Piracy Advertisement (Score:4, Insightful)
> That theory in itself invites enough debate without having to throw in the "the salaried employees have already been paid" straw man.
It's not a straw man.
Past a certain point, YOU PERSONALLY are not going to benefit from any more sales of the product even if YOU PERSONALLY contributed to it's production.
Either way, it's probably not going to matter. A bad film is going to bomb and a good film is going to make profits for the studio that they studio will never admit to. Piracy won't change that. All Piracy does is inflate the sense of entitlement felt by the high level management at the studio. They mistake demand for the product at the ZERO price point as real value.
Piracy primarily skews the percieved value of the work.
Re:Proposed Anti-Anti-Piracy Advertisement (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a suggestion:
Scenario:
Movie studio office, 1930's style. Large expensive looking desk, semi-naked woman lying in it. Big fat movie executive wearing a 1930's style suit, holding a large lit cigar in his hand sitting on a chair behind the desk. Behind him, a window shows a sunny Californian day, with some palm-trees and an expensive sports car visible.
Around the office, other similar looking man are sitting in sofas surrounded by beautiful semi-claded women. Expensive looking sculptures and paintings are spread all over the office (possibly including one or two well known paintings).
Action:
Camera pans around the office, centers on the executive sitting in the chair with the desk (and woman) in front and the window behind.
Executive snorts a line of coke from the woman's belly, turns to the camera and says:
"I can't feed my family. Because thieves steal my work online."
Going to the movies is different than buying one (Score:5, Insightful)
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I would imagine pirated movies hurt dvd sales more than box office, at least in the US.
Bad movies & remakes hurt dvd sales & box office more than piracy.
As does hollywood accounting.
As does their constant desire to waste ridiculous amounts of money on SFX & overpriced actors.
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Re:Going to the movies is different than buying on (Score:3, Interesting)
People are still willing to pay to go to the movies for the superior screen/sound and crowd experience. Although the impact is far less than they claim, I would imagine pirated movies hurt dvd sales more than box office, at least in the US.
Overall people don't mind going to movies. After all, if the film is good and the projectionist is good, then it is (or should be) a great experience. It's not the same thing as the recorded music business, which was never about providing the total experience like movies have been for ages. I suppose a better parallel to a movie is a music concert. Again, it's about the whole experience and people don't mind paying for that. (Well, most people anyway. Enough to make it potentially very profitable.)
The threa
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Although the impact is far less than they claim, I would imagine pirated movies hurt dvd sales more than box office, at least in the US.
Yes, and it should.
If I want to pirate a movie, I can go to a single site, find multiple options (1080p, 720p, ipod, ect) for just about every movie in existence. All of which are "in stock" and most of which I can download to my computer in less time it would take to drive to the store. The movie is presented to me without unskippable ads, without worry of scratching or losing, and can be archived without taking up space on my shelf.
All of this is free.
As most technical people are very aware, if I'
Re:Going to the movies is different than buying on (Score:5, Interesting)
Imainge if when you bought a DVD, it had no copy restrictions, it contained on it versions formatted for copying to a hard drive and for various smaller players (such as the iPhone), and instead of the "FBI WARNING: IF U STEEL THIS WE'LL COME AND GET YOU" (which only people who have already paid see), you saw one of the main actors saying, "Hi, this is Denzel Washington. I realize that you could have downloaded this illegally, so I just want to express my personal thanks to you for supporting the movie industry by opting to pay for this DVD instead. Please enjoy the show."
Piracy would probably only go down a few percent, but you could probably sell the DVDs, but overall DVD sales would grow, because people would be happy buying a DVD, instead of feeling screwed (as I always do).
Re:Going to the movies is different than buying on (Score:4, Insightful)
By superior do you mean "volume's too loud" and "a quarter of the audience are self-centered assholes"?
That's an innovative definition you've got there.
Unbelievable growth (Score:5, Interesting)
Such utter bullshit - My rant (Score:2, Interesting)
Everyone -- yes, every goddamn one -- knows that the Hollywood/MPAA (and the RIAA music fight) boils down to one thing: money in the pockets of executives. That's it. It's only about technology insofar how that technology impacts the bottom-line. It's not about art. It's about making sure a select group of executives make sure they can keep the mortgage payments on their Bel-Air mansions and can keep memberships in their country clubs.
10 Billion and only one movie I liked (Score:4, Funny)
Which the inner geek in me embraces Star Trek but oddly the girlfriend would not go with me to the theater to see so I got it on dvd.
We did go see Twilight god help me got being so whipped.
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Which the inner geek in me embraces Star Trek but oddly the girlfriend would not go with me to the theater to see so I got it on dvd.
We did go see Twilight god help me got being so whipped.
You read slashdot and have a girlfriend. I think most will excuse you for being whipped.
Re:10 Billion and only one movie I liked (Score:5, Funny)
Which the inner geek in me embraces Star Trek but oddly the girlfriend would not go with me to the theater to see so I got it on dvd.
We did go see Twilight god help me got being so whipped.
My wife loved the new Star Trek and she wouldn't be caught dead going to Twilight. Sucks to be you.
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In all fairness, the average actor in the new SW was probably better than in the old. That being said, the fact that Hayden Christiansen was out-acted by Mark Hamil was pretty sad(Hamil makes a pretty good voice actor, but damn he couldn't act).
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Re:10 Billion and only one movie I liked (Score:5, Funny)
We did go see Twilight god help me got being so whipped.
No wonder you're an Anonymous Coward. Dating 13 year old girls...tsk tsk...
Re:10 Billion and only one movie I liked (Score:4, Funny)
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I'll give you a pass on being whipped if you got blown after seeing Twilight with her.
If she suggests that you read the books so she can debate them with you - and you do - then she's the one
with the penis ( if you're living The Crying Game, don't tell us, please ).
Torrent Freak not telling the whole truth again (Score:5, Insightful)
"The 2009 total was aided by a 28 cent increase in ticket prices from the year before to an average $7.46.
The total number of tickets sold, or admissions, is expected to reach 1.4 billion, up from 1.34 billion in 2008. Still, that figure is not expected to break the record 1.6 billion tickets sold in 2002, said Hollywood.com Box Office."
The reason for the higher revenue? Higher ticket prices. Ticket sales are down 12% since 2002. If you look at a long-term graph of ticket sales, you can see that it's been basically flat in the 2000s, compared to upper single-digit or double-digit growth nearly every year between 1970 and 2000. It's pretty much been stagnant since 2002.
Here's some numbers showing the trend:
2009 - Total Gross $9,782.4
2008 - Total Gross $9,630.6
2007 - Total Gross $9,663.7
2006 - Total Gross $9,209.5
2005 - Total Gross $8,840.5
2004 - Total Gross $9,380.5
2003 - Total Gross $9,239.7
2002 - Total Gross $9,155.0
2001 - Total Gross $8,412.5
2000 - Total Gross $7,661.0
1990 - Total Gross $5,021.8
1980 - Total Gross $2,749.0
http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/ [boxofficemojo.com]
1980->1990 = 83% Growth in 10 years, average of 8.2% per year
1990->2002 = 82% Growth in 12 years, average of 6.8% per year
Then, *mysteriously*, something happened around 2002:
2002->2009 = 9.2% Growth in 7 years, 1.3% per year (using the $10 billion number, not the $9,782.4 for 2009)
To put that in perspective, 1.3% is less than the growth of inflation.
In other news, the number of AIDS patients is higher than ever, and yet, the average lifespan continues to grow. I'm sure we all can see the correlation here: AIDS = longer lifespans. Torrent Freak spins reality even more than FOX news. I wish Slashdot wasn't such a fan of the pro-pirate spin.
Re:Torrent Freak not telling the whole truth again (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason for the higher revenue? Higher ticket prices. Ticket sales are down 12% since 2002. If you look at a long-term graph of ticket sales, you can see that it's been basically flat in the 2000s, compared to upper single-digit or double-digit growth nearly every year between 1970 and 2000. It's pretty much been stagnant since 2002.
Here's some numbers showing the trend:
2009 - Total Gross $9,782.4
2008 - Total Gross $9,630.6
2007 - Total Gross $9,663.7
2006 - Total Gross $9,209.5
2005 - Total Gross $8,840.5
2004 - Total Gross $9,380.5
2003 - Total Gross $9,239.7
2002 - Total Gross $9,155.0
2001 - Total Gross $8,412.5
2000 - Total Gross $7,661.0
1990 - Total Gross $5,021.8
1980 - Total Gross $2,749.0
http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/ [boxofficemojo.com]
1980->1990 = 83% Growth in 10 years, average of 8.2% per year
1990->2002 = 82% Growth in 12 years, average of 6.8% per year
Then, *mysteriously*, something happened around 2002:
Nine... *The audience leans forward, waiting for Myoral Candidate Lois Griffin's next word*
Eleven. *Raucous Cheering* It was near the end of 2001, and people were sheepishly afraid of gathering in large groups (except at church). Once they stared renting DVDs more at home, they realized that they liked it better.
Or, maybe it was the advent of the HDTVs
Or: The reason ticket sales are down 12% since 2002? Higher ticket prices.
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Sooooo....
What you are saying is that the Movie Industry made more movies, and more money than ever before, despite their claims of piracy hooligans destroying their business, but that it's all an illusion based on your rigorous statistical analysis, and out of line reference to the horrible disease, AIDS.
???
Profit?
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Higher compared to what? Are your statistics corrected for inflation?
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I wish Slashdot wasn't such a fan of the pro-pirate spin.
I've seen what happens when websites become fans of the pro-ninja spin. It's not pretty either.
correlation is not causation (Score:2)
I find piracy an unlikely culprit largely because the quality is just so damn low usually, people use tv piracy mostly for time shifting and "nation shifting", but everyone uses TiVo whenever available, and movies start out higher quality, so your losing much much more.
I'd bet the single biggest reason is that television and home theaters have cut into their sales.
There are now more shows that more people *perceive* as high quality, more shows are designed to addict people (X Files, Lost, etc.), comedy show
This analysis is totally ridiculous. (Score:5, Interesting)
The $10 billion number is gross revenue. It does not take into effect the costs of making more movies than ever before. Never mind that making more movies means spending more money and that movie budgets are also increasing.
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The $10 billion number is gross revenue. It does not take into effect the costs
Cry me a fucking river. Next you're going to tell me that Lord of the Rings actually DID lose money, in fact it almost bankrupted New Line Cinema, and Peter Jackson shouldn't have been paid a penny.
Hollywood is all about make believe. It's unfortunate that they manage to convince so many people about the vast hardships involved in making movies, when just about any former actor or singe
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The $10 billion number is gross revenue. It does not take into effect the costs
Cry me a fucking river.
Do you understand the basics of economy? Spend more, you usually bigger sum back too. It doesn't mean the income percentage is a lot larger. This is even more true when everything has to be larger, better and more impressive all the time.
The only reason Hollywood really survives is due to the masses who have no idea what a buck is worth, and are willing to part with a lot of them for a couple hours spent staring at a screen where the same plots are played out over and over again by different actors.
Who are YOU to judge what is worth some bucks for OTHER people and what they might find fun? I also hope you understand that not everyone who works in movies/tv business are filthy rich. Sure, if you're an idiot, you might think that everyone makes millions per movie for a
"Piracy" (Score:3, Interesting)
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Its also okay for the CRIA to make and sell compilation and live track CDs from artists and just place them on a "Pending to be notified and paid" list. Of course they are now facing a 6 billion dollar lawsuit for this but are claiming that they shouldn't have to pay this.
And in other news... (Score:2, Insightful)
Growth in retail sales proves that shoplifting is beneficial for shop owners.
Also,growth in highway fatalities proves that seat belts are dangerous,
and growth in violent crime clearly fingers video games.
Seriously, slashdot, this is the weakest argument ever.
Re:And in other news... (Score:5, Informative)
Who said anything about it being beneficial? That's a rather piss-poor strawman.
The argument is that despite Hollywood decrying piracy as being be downfall of the movie industry, that they were losing money hand over fist, that ordinary people in the industry were losing their jobs left, right and centre because of it, that the entire economy of America was in danger because of these dangerous pirates, who were probably also funding international terrorism and all paedophiles as well, they've somehow managed to make record profits during a substantial recession.
Does that ... (Score:3, Funny)
... $10 billion include the overpriced popcorn?
Doubt it (Score:4, Informative)
A scary realization (Score:2)
Microsoft routinely grosses more than Hollywood does at the domestic box office.
Hmm, that's an apples-to-oranges comparison because that's Microsoft's international gross income compared to Hollywood's domestic income. But still ... I thought it somewhat eye-popping.
Box Office is a Small Part of the Equation (Score:2)
Michael Bay should direct this... (Score:3, Funny)
If Hollywood really just wanted to make a quick buck, they'd just throw together a trailer full of tidal waves, nuclear bomb test footage, explosions, robots, Michael Bay's name, then release the obligatory blockbuster movie trailer with such delightful quips as: "in a world... explosion... awesome... teenage cleavage... het-er-o-sex-u-al... stuff you liked when you were twelve..."
It doesn't even matter if there is an actual movie. It will make BILLIONS.
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Re:Why would anyone go to a theater? (Score:5, Funny)
"I could theorize that any attempt to replicate a theater experience at home is also "lame" but that would be rather presumptuous."
It could be quite interesting and not "lame" at all.,,
Invite as many derelicts as you can find over for whiskey and popcorn, then hand out prepaid cellphones so they can enjoy them while watching the movie.
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I think its been maybe 10 years since I've actually gone to a movie ... The whole idea of having to travel somewhere to get video content, well, that's been lame since...
People have 'dates' with others every now and then, and the cinema is a nice place to go during the process. In fact the cinema can turn dating from a potentially-stressful process into a more relaxed, passive and entertaining process. It can even provide something worth discussing afterwards.
During these 'dates' ambiance is a valuable quality, so perhaps dinner in a restaurant and a film at the cinema trumps what the basement-media-room affords. At least as an alternative for some folks.
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Wait....a "date" is where you go and sit in the dark, so you can't see the other person, and don't talk to them for an hour or two? Really?
Mine tend to be more along the lines of inviting someone over for dinner, talking, rubbing elbows during prep work, laughter over wining and dining, and enjoying the ability to see and talk to each other the whole time.
I'd make a joke about typical slashdot ideas of dating revolving around not seeing or talking to the other person, but that'd just be rud
Re:Why would anyone go to a theater? (Score:4, Insightful)
So, wait, you and your potential mates are so insecure and immature that you constantly need to be giving and receiving physical contact and interaction? You haven't grown up enough or don't appreciate the other person enough to just be in their presence from time to time? In the words of Mia Wallace: "That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence."
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Correction: a "date" is where you go and sit in the dark, so other people can't see you doing things other than talking for an hour or two.
Not that the sibling post is wrong, mind you, there's also something to be said for simply enjoying a personal pasttime alongside a person you appreciate and ocassionally engaging in some silent communication, but they're also *such* great places for letting a teenager's hormones run wild my definition cannot be easily dismissed ;)
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For bonus points, you got with a girl you just met and at some point*, the people on the screen get naked and have sex... that always felt a bit weird.
* have you noticed that most movies have sex at 40 minutes in? The exception is if sex is a big focus in the movie so it opens with it.
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Soo... Sitting in a room full of people eating anonymous food, followed by sitting in another room full of people--this time with clear physical boundaries between you--trumps sitting in a room with just you two eating perhaps home-cooked food, followed by sitting in another room alone snuggling on a sofa, with an even more intimate room within 10 seconds' walking distance?
Sorry. You fail at dating.
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Sorry. You fail at dating.
Dude, this is Slashdot : "Would you like to play dungeons and dragons with me..."
Re: (Score:2)
Soo... Sitting in a room full of people eating anonymous food, followed by sitting in another room full of people--this time with clear physical boundaries between you--trumps sitting in a room with just you two eating perhaps home-cooked food, followed by sitting in another room alone snuggling on a sofa, with an even more intimate room within 10 seconds' walking distance?
Some women like to snuggle in public (and a movie theater counts). Also, the seats in most theaters have retractable arm-rests these days. Choose a theater close to one person's home.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, because gold's value will always remain constant, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Gold value skyrocket while there are recession. In 2009, the gold price went up around 25% (in USD) while there`s been a general deflation of the US market. You should use the inflation, which takes into account much more different values to compare year to year.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Just think how much money they could have made if everybody here stopped stealing all their movies. At least another couple million dollars!
Re:Big Suprise! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Europeans get all their movies from the US?
Seriously though, In Europe, do the pretentious movie snobs watch imported American films as if they're all some kind of deep, meaningful works of fine art?