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Movies Piracy Television Entertainment

Piracy 'Warnings' Fail To Boost Box Office Revenues, Research Says (torrentfreak.com) 189

A new academic study shows that graduated response policies against file-sharers fail to boost box office revenues. From a TorrentFreak report: The empirical research, which looked at the effects in various countries including the United States, suggests that these anti-piracy measures are not as effective as the movie studios had hoped. [...] Thus far there has been very little research on the topic but a new study, published by Dr. Jordi McKenzie of Sydney's Macquarie University, suggests that these "strikes" policies don't boost box office revenues. For his paper, published in the most recent issue of the journal 'Information Economics and Policy,' McKenzie looked at opening week and total box office revenues for 6,083 unique films released between 2005 and 2013. Using a variety of statistical analyses, he then measured the impact of the graduated response systems and related policies in six countries. In addition, another ten countries were included as a control measure. The overall conclusion based on thousands of data points is that these anti-piracy policies have no significant impact on box-office income.
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Piracy 'Warnings' Fail To Boost Box Office Revenues, Research Says

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  • Meanwhile.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by H3lldr0p ( 40304 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @09:45AM (#53603767) Homepage

    Hollywood is enjoying a streak of box office highs for the past several years.

    In short, "piracy" isn't touching their bottom line. If anything, the ability to share these movies and the associated emotions has increased it.

    Word of mouth as the best form of advertisement. Who wouldda thunk it?

    • Re:Meanwhile.... (Score:5, Informative)

      by sheramil ( 921315 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @10:03AM (#53603837)
      this. i guess it was all of three days ago, so most people would have forgotten by now: "Despite Piracy Claims, North American Box Office Hits Record $11.4 Billion In 2016" https://entertainment.slashdot... [slashdot.org]
    • We hate you. Please buy our stuff.

      I guess if I was in marketing, that approach might make sense to me?

    • The box office is up only because the average ticket price continues to rise. Both because of inflation, and because an increasing percentage of total ticket sales are for premium theaters. The number of tickets being sold has been falling for a number of years; after the peak year of 2002 there was a big dropoff in 2005 and a slow decline since. (But not steady; years go up and down a bit.) Source: https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]

      2002 featured movies in three of the biggest franchises ever: Lord of the R

  • News Flash (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bfpierce ( 4312717 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @09:47AM (#53603775)

    Preventing people from getting your movies for free does not in fact make them better able to afford your movies, or make it seem more worth it to those who can.

    • by DickBreath ( 207180 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @10:17AM (#53603909) Homepage
      Preventing people from getting your movies for free may simply drive them to other forms of entertainment. Like trolling on web sites that were once for nerds.
      • Re:News Flash (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @10:47AM (#53604123)

        This is so massively critical I don't think Sports and Movies people realize it. I think a study showed once that chronic pirates actually spend more at the movies. Why? Because they are addicted to watching movies (now). Kill the addiction by making it too expensive and inconvenient and then that person may turn to video games, TV, other hobbies, internet trolling, music, etc. Why do you think drug dealers, and even many legitimate businesses give away the first few doses? Simple: humans are creatures of habit. We like the known and we like to repeat the known.

        I noticed when I dropped cable two things happened:
        1) I stopped watching sports as much - I would only watch the "big games" at a bar or friends house
        2) Lack of watching sports made me buy fewer tickets to the games

        Results:
        - #1 & #2 combined over a couple years resulted in me losing interest, skipping even big games and not buying tickets to any games

        - Now I haven't spent even $1 on sports in over a year and don't feel any urge to do so (I went from full cable package + season tickets to ZERO)

        - This would have been entirely avoided by the sports team if I didn't have to pay so much for cable sports

        • Quite possibly they know all of that, but that does not mean they can switch to condoning piracy or giving their product away for free. Perhaps the system as it is, is carefully calibrated to offer the maximum word of mouth, while still retaining just enough deterrent to make them the optimal amount of money.

          Let's face it, there isn't really anything stopping you from pirating anything. A few token-cases per year get a conviction. Surely they could do better - but perhaps this works best for them as well.

    • Preventing people from getting your movies for free does not in fact make them better able to afford your movies, or make it seem more worth it to those who can.

      I'm not sure it is the price alone that keeps people from going to the cinema - a significant factor is probably also that what is produced is mostly so bland; the same, overworked clichees in slightly different packaging. Last I went to the cinema was just before Christmas 2014; I have made several attempts at going, but every time it turns out that there just isn't anything I can be bothered to watch. Even stuff like Star Wars or Star Trek seems like little more than run-of-the-mill action movie, slightly

      • Also, at least I do not like the experience of watching a movie in a cinema. I like having control over when I watch it, being able to set the volume and being able to pause the movie to go get more food or just discuss a scene with my friend.

        To me a cinema is taking the bad aspects of "watching a movie alone at home" and "watching a movie with friends at home of one of the friends", putting them together and then adding some new ones.

        By the way, I do not really get hyped over anything, so I do not have to

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      What, a rational, logical argument? We cannot have those. The content-industry execs are not equipped to handle them. Not enough neurons.

  • Makes sense. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @09:49AM (#53603787)

    If you are going to the movies. It is often because.
    1. You are excited to see it and really do not want to wait for it.
    2. You would want to see it in a large screen, quality speakers, perhaps 3d.
    3. You want a reason to leave your home, and perhaps with other people.

    If you are excited to see the movie. There isn't any real rush to pirate it. This no rush means it may be available at higher quality vs legit streaming channels, or DVD/Blueray rentals (say from RedBox) for a few bucks.

    • Re:Makes sense. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DickBreath ( 207180 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @10:22AM (#53603951) Homepage
      If you go to the theater to see a movie it is because you REALLY want to see it. So badly that you are willing to endure the movie magic experience of the theater.

      Screaming kids, people getting up and squeezing out through the row of seats, and then back again later, and cell phones, and people talking, and telling their life story, along with narrating the film, people kicking the back of your seat, throwing popcorn . . .

      It's all part of the movie magic! The theater experience. You wouldn't want to get less than you paid for.

      And let's not forget being treated like a criminal before admission into the dignity of the theater experience. And 45 minutes of ads.
      • If you go to the theater to see a movie it is because you REALLY want to see it.

        No, it's for one of two reasons. It's a movie I want to see ON A BIG SCREEN and/or I'm going to the movie theater because I'm on a date. There are no other reasons. You go to a theater because the can provide an experience I cannot get at home. Theaters provide that - a huge screen and a great sound system at minimum. Often they have other amenities as well. If my only goal was merely to watch the movie then there would never be a reason to go to the theater.

        Screaming kids, people getting up and squeezing out through the row of seats, and then back again later, and cell phones, and people talking, and telling their life story, along with narrating the film, people kicking the back of your seat, throwing popcorn . . .

        You need to find yourself a better theater

        • My local theater (12 screens) has remodeled. Fewer but larger very nice reclining seats. Motorized reclining and footrest. Large cup holders. So much leg room that people can walk in front of you without you having to move at all.

          Yet I only go to movies I really want to see. And there are few of those.

          Part of the problem is that most of what Hollywood turns out is crap. Or sequels of crap. Or remakes of sequels of crap. Etc.

          The other part of the problem is that I have a decent 60" screen an
          • I can pause.

            Somehome I find that when I'm at home and can pause and go pee or get food or whatever, I do and so the experience is less immersive. Plus seeing a decent (or cheesy) movie with a good crowd is much better than watching it alone.

            Rewind to hear what they actually said

            Is is just me, or is the current fashion for sound editing to have people mumbling things quietly while there's high background noise? I'm pretty sure it's not just me because I do in fact watch older movies and I have far less troub

          • My recent experiences with this remodeled theater are good. Yet I find that there aren't very many movies that I am willing to go there to see.

            Great. So is that why are you trolling this web site with problems you don't really have?

          • My recent experiences with this remodeled theater are good. Yet I find that there aren't very many movies that I am willing to go there to see.

            I'll go if there's a movie I really want to see, or as a social event. I rarely have the disruptions complained about, and cost doesn't even bother me. If I see a movie by myself I go Tuesdays when it's cheap. If I go with friends I earn or redeem SCENE points. I never buy food so I don't complain about the cost of that.

            I find the quality of the experience is usually good. All the theatres around here replaced the seats with comfortable rocking seats. Ever since digital projection, IMHO the quality of the a

        • by djinn6 ( 1868030 )
          I wonder if the theater playback quality is actually better. I'm pretty sure the screen is not as bright. Does it have better color reproduction than your average LCD TV? The sound system is great, but then they also turn it up to deafening loudness, to the point where it distracts you.
      • Screaming kids, people getting up and squeezing out through the row of seats, and then back again later, and cell phones, and people talking, and telling their life story, along with narrating the film, people kicking the back of your seat, throwing popcorn . . .

        I'm 53 and have never - and I mean never - experienced most of the above and the few other minor cases (people coming/going or quiet talking) were not bothersome. Of course, I've lived in Virginia Beach since 1982 and I've only ever gone to morning and afternoon viewings and have never been to an evening show.

      • Screaming kids, people getting up and squeezing out through the row of seats, and then back again later, and cell phones, and people talking, and telling their life story, along with narrating the film, people kicking the back of your seat, throwing popcorn . . .

        You need to find a better cinema. My local bargain cinema has vastly better behaviour than that and it's a fiver a ticket. The central london ones are a "bit" pricier and all have 100% effective cell phone blockers (they're built underground, which

      • If you go to the theater to see a movie it is because you REALLY want to see it. So badly that you are willing to endure the movie magic experience of the theater. Screaming kids, people getting up and squeezing out through the row of seats, and then back again later, and cell phones, and people talking, and telling their life story, along with narrating the film, people kicking the back of your seat, throwing popcorn . . . It's all part of the movie magic! The theater experience. You wouldn't want to get less than you paid for. And let's not forget being treated like a criminal before admission into the dignity of the theater experience. And 45 minutes of ads.

        You must live in a strange neighbourhood because I can't say I experience any of the things you describe on a regular basis when going to the moves. The most frequent disturbance I have encountered are giggling teenagers occasionally throwing popcorn and candy wrappers who usually respond to a firmly voiced request to shut the fuck up and sit down or be thrown out by the theatre staff. I don't run into many people kicking the back of my seat but they usually respond to a courteous request to stop. I don't e

      • Screaming kids, people getting up and squeezing out through the row of seats, and then back again later, and cell phones, and people talking, and telling their life story, along with narrating the film, people kicking the back of your seat, throwing popcorn . . .

        Another person who lives in a crap neighbourhood with a crap theatre. Maybe it's time you moved somewhere with less crappy people.

        I go to the movies once a week, okay maybe 45 times a year since there's holidays and breaks that get in the way of movie night. I've seen 1 problem person in the past 2 years and they were quickly dealt with by the crowd and the theatre kicked them out.

        You should surround yourself with a better class of people.

      • by jonwil ( 467024 )

        I go to the movies all the time and I basically never have to deal with screaming kids or people talking or people using their phones or seats being kicked.

        The theater I go to even has a message on the screen at the start asking people to turn off their phones, to keep their feet off the seats and to not talk during the movie. And I bet if someone was being annoying in that way and I complained, the staff would act.

        Why more movie theaters in America dont do something about it in the way theaters here in Aus

    • #2 and #3 are, as you say, not affected by piracy at all.

      #1 is definitely affected by piracy, but they have addressed this adequately by plugging holes in their own distribution channels - it is extremely hard to get a good quality rip of a movie in the first few months from the internet. Anyone sufficiently excited to see the movie will not be happy with a crappy cam version. By the time the Russian and higher quality TS versions come out, the real money has already been made (when the theaters are still p

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Well, the last few movies I "pirated" (legally tolerated here), I found so bad that I did not even watch them to the end. And these were high-budget "AAA" titles. I think I will not even bother to look at the current trash they are making. It is just not worth the time. Guess they should be happy, because that will reduce piracy on my side and by their "logic", they are hence losing less money. Of course, any rational business-person would rather have me pirate the stuff than not watch it at all...

      • If you pay to go to a movie, especially if you pay a lot to go to it (expensive ticket, expensive concessions), you will view it as being better than one you viewed cheaply or free. This is true for almost any product with price discrimination. People that pay more for a product feel better about the product in general even if it is the same product as the lower price choices.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @09:51AM (#53603797)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • You're not entirely accurate.

      Tighter control of pedestrians adhering to crosswalks fails to boost public transport usage.

      Higher penalties for failure to use turn signals found inefficient in encouraging drivers to drive straight across crossroads.

      New, draconian fine for not using seatbelts found inefficient in boosting motorcycle helmet sales.

  • 99% of movies has the same schema portrayed in various backdrops & settings, you have a protagonist battling an antagonist over either a princess or a treasure, and that is what movies are, it is the same old shit over & over & over again, it never changes and people are not wanting to spend money to see the same old schema with just different costumes
    • It's not just the same schema. It's literally the SAME DAMN MOVIE.

      Star War: New Hope Awakens, anyone?

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Star War: New Hope Awakens, anyone?

        Annoyed me so much because it was the same trash as everything else, I stopped watching it after 5 minutes. That one was not even worth the bandwidth. Maybe the new strategy of the movie-industry is to bore pirates to tears. If so, they are succeeding with me.

    • You forgot to mention bad sequels. Hey, we had this successful movie once, let's make a cheap sequel to make more money, riding on the back of the success of our earlier movie!

      Or this . . . let's make a movie of some TV show from the golden age of television.

      Or, let's do a remake of some old movie, but ruin the plot in various gratuitous ways.

      Or, let's make a sequel to a remake of a sequel of an old movie.

      Oh, I know !!! Let's make a movie with a huge special effects budget and then add a littl
    • 99% of movies has the same schema portrayed in various backdrops & settings, you have a protagonist battling an antagonist over either a princess or a treasure...

      And so it is with every single story retold since the spoken word. How sad to be you... you couldn't even entertain yourself with a good book with that attitude. Or maybe your problem is less the schema and more the Action:Plot:Character ratio, which for the last 2 to 3 decades has been leaning a bit too heavy on the action side and rather light on plot and character. Then there's the fact that everything coming out Hollywood now has to be Dark and Gritty(tm)...which doesn't surprise me so much consideri

    • by PCM2 ( 4486 )

      99% of movies has the same schema portrayed in various backdrops & settings, you have a protagonist battling an antagonist over either a princess or a treasure

      You ever consider the possibility that it may just be your own personal predilection for certain types of material? Because it sure doesn't sound like you're watching a whole lot of historical dramas, biopics, horror movies, comedies, murder mysteries, documentaries, or any other categories that don't seem to fit the cookie-cutter you describe.

  • They make people realize they don't care for giving these assholes money, and the warnings are a reminders to simply no go to the movies at all.

  • by headhot ( 137860 )

    It's because pirates weren't customers to begin with. With out piracy the alternative to 99% of people pirating is just not seeing the movie.

    • Pirates do not represent a Lost Sale. The pirates are not going to buy anyway.
      • by gfxguy ( 98788 )

        Bullshit. That may be true of a lot of pirating, but you cannot state it's the blanket case for all - some people want something, and if they don't have the choice of stealing or illegally copying it, they would certainly grudgingly pay for it. Hollywood is losing a LOT of money on piracy, just not anywhere near the outrageous numbers they claim. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.... the pirates claim it's a molehill, the industry claims it's a mountain, the truth is somewhere in between.

        B

        • Most of what Hollywood produces is not what I want. Let's talk about mp3's.

          I can easily buy DRM free mp3's, say on Amazon, for a reasonable price. I can put them on all my devices. And on all future devices I will ever own. I feel like I actually purchased something. I have no reason to pirate music. The inexpensively purchased mp3's are high quality with good audio engineering and uniform volume. Despite the reasonable price and ease of purchase, people still pirate music. Those people probably
          • by gfxguy ( 98788 )

            I actually agree with you completely - but you cannot tell me there aren't plenty of people who would have bought something they ended up pirating for free. I have essentially said the same thing you just did in other posts in this thread - the industry would be better off accepting piracy and allowing the people who legally purchased the content have more freedom with it. Otherwise they encourage piracy because the content is usually unencumbered when pirated. It's the legal purchasers who suffer lack

            • Same here with books. Dead tree format every time. Why? Because DRM. If I can't download a DRM free copy, then I didn't actually purchase anything. It's just a long term borrow.
            • by sjames ( 1099 )

              I don't arbitrarily decide I'm entitled to pirate the e-book.

              And if there were no paperbacks? How about if your approved choices were ebook, pay more to have someone recite it to you, or do without?

              • by gfxguy ( 98788 )
                Do without. You're not "entitled" to have the publisher give you something in your preferred format. This isn't bread to feed a starving family, it's a book (or a movie, or a song, or a game).
        • by sjames ( 1099 )

          Or they'll wait till it comes on a cable channel they get.

  • Wow shocked (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @10:17AM (#53603911) Journal

    The not so subtle suggestion you think a large portion of your patrons are no good criminals or ignorant boobs that need to be lectured at over and over again does not make them want to cooperate or cause them to embrace your way of thinking?

    Wow I am totally shocked! Maybe if they were a little less in your face about it, did not threaten you jail they'd get more buy in. That and they need to stop pushing the obviously false equivalence with physical theft. Only the most radical intellectual property proponents consider that remotely equivalent. They'd find a lot more allies among the general public if they stopped clutching the pearls quite so hard. Many people myself included agree we need some copyright and intellectual property protections. Where we don't and won't agree is that it has to be FOREVER or that we need armed FBI shock troops kicking in doors and shooting peoples dogs because they copied a DVD once. Which I realize does not happen in minor cases like that but you'd sure imagine that it does after watching some of those piracy warnings and propaganda shorts they put in front of movies now.

    I don't know about others but the response those things engender in me is, "These guys are nasty bullies, I don't like bullies so I don't care what happens to them, best of luck to pirates." Which is a simplistic, non intellectual response that when I sit down and think about the issues careful I realize isn't really right, but they are making an emotional appeal and so they trigger an emotional reaction; just not the one they want.

  • by CanadianMacFan ( 1900244 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @10:27AM (#53603989)

    If you want me to go to the movie theatre then do two things. Improve the whole theatre experience and make better movies.

    I got tired of people talking and using their cell phones during movies. Granted that this really isn't the movie industry's fault as it's people being inconsiderate. We don't need a technological solution such as something to kill the cell signal. Just have it so that the movie studio pays for someone to be in the audience looking out for disruptive people. The usher would then go and have a quiet word with them reminding them to be nice. It works for all cases (people talking, texting, playing a game on the phone, etc) and if someone refuses they can be removed by calling security. (Of course the theatre company would have to have the balls to implement this.). Another thing I hate is the pile of ads and previews that are shown when the movie is supposed to start. I paid to see the movie, not 15 or 20 minutes of ads. (This goes for buying movies and TV shows too, especially the FBI warning on pirating. I've bought the show so don't force me to sit through a message on the evils of pirating every time I put the disc in the player.)

    The other reason I don't go to the movies is that there aren't really any movies worth going out to see, or even to download. Hollywoods idea of a great movie is one that has more explosions. I want a great story that makes me think. How about something original?

    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      If you want me to go to the movie theatre then do two things. Improve the whole theatre experience and make better movies.

      A lot of towns now have higher-end movie theaters with oversized reclining chairs with food and (alcoholic) beverage service in the theater. You pay a premium of course in regards to tickets(but not too bad) and the food is a bit pricey(this is where they make their money), but that helps guarantee you have a reduced chance of loud obnoxious kids or people yapping on cell phones because they are actually there for the movie/relaxing experience and have paid good money to do so. Plus with the wait staff oc

    • by gfxguy ( 98788 )

      I hear you - I rarely go to the movies anymore, maybe three or four times a year; but your reasons are not justifications for pirating (as there's really nothing that justifies pirating movies). Wait for the disc or the (legal) streaming and watch it at your leisure on your system... no harm, no foul.

  • On the other hand, Piracy warnings seem to have been correlated with a notable increase in interest in Downloadable Cars.
    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      On the other hand, Piracy warnings seem to have been correlated with a notable increase in interest in Downloadable Cars.

      I think the only proper response to those "You wouldn't download a car..." ads is "Of course not. 3D printers aren't good enough yet."

  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @10:51AM (#53604153)

    The thing about Hollywood movies is, more and more I can't even be bothered to watch most of them when they are free, never mind the trouble of going to the theater or wasting bandwidth downloading them...

    The theaters have done what they can with things like having theaters that have assigned seats and comfortable roomy chairs. But it doesn't matter how great the room is, if the movie stinks why would I go?

    I don't know what it would take for movie studios to start producing interesting and original work again. Maybe they should ask Netflix how it's done...

    • by sconeu ( 64226 )

      This.

      My GF and I went to the local iPic. For those of you who don't know what iPic is, it's one of those theatres with the massive reclining seats and in-seat service (including full bar). The theatre itself is excellent.

      One night we went out on a date, and wound up watching "Hardcore Henry". We walked out 20 minutes into the movie. The theatre offered us seats to "Batman vs Superman".

      'Nuff said.

  • It has to be something I can't wait to watch, and that only happens about once every 5 years or so.
    At home I have a big ass TV, surround sound and I can pause and get up and get a beer from the fridge, and maybe make some more popcorn without missing anything. No queues, assholes on their cellphones or giggling teenagers either. Then there is the cost factor, the last time I went to watch a movie the popcorn and drinks cost more than the movie tickets (and it was a 3D movie). To be honest cost is not th
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Thanatiel ( 445743 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @11:36AM (#53604435)

    These stupid warnings ended up pissing me off so much I simply stopped buying disks.
    For a while I switched to a well know ads-free streaming platform, until they banned VPN.
    Since I simply browse the web, read books or play games.

    They should not underestimate how much customers despise being interrupted with stupid insulting warnings (or worse : anti-piracy videos)

    What genius didn't realise the pirates will not be the ones seeing these annoying messages ?

    • by PCM2 ( 4486 )

      The ones that piss me off are the trailer montages that have voice-overs telling me all about the glory of Blu-Ray discs and why I need to start buying them. Real brains trust over there at the disc mastering company...

  • Depending on how the things pan out, it might steal sales, or might give sales.
    If for example your movie is good, but horribly marketed, pirates may end doing a word of mouth wave that will make at least the dvd sales be good.

  • Gee, who knew that pirates and file-sharers don't pay attention to the FBI splash screens? Truly a shocking revelation!!

  • by zedaroca ( 3630525 ) on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @12:25PM (#53604827)

    If someone threatens to take your Internet away, that is a big incentive NOT to go to the movies. Why would you finance the bullies?
    Meanwhile, if you forget that they are spying on you and censoring the Internet, then you might go to have the "movies" experience.

    And I note that a lot of people here are talking about the warnings in the beginning of the movies, but that's not what the article is talking about:

    France was one of the pioneers in this area with its three-strikes anti-piracy law, and similar policies have been implemented in countries such as Ireland, South Korea, New Zealand and the United States, among others.

  • So they don't even have the decency to pretend that those anti-piracy measures were meant to curb piracy?

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