Damned Pirates: Hollywood Sets $10B Box Office Record

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Once again we have absolute proof that pirates are bankrupting the movie industry. Good job all you file sharing bastards, you’ve ruined it for everyone.

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.
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Thats because to take a a family of 4 to t.he movies it costs $347.22


( I just made up that number but im sure its +/- 0.22)
 
Frozen8950 said:
Thats because to take a a family of 4 to t.he movies it costs $347.22


( I just made up that number but im sure its +/- 0.22)
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The sad thing is it is around 80-90$ to do so.

If you assume you live in a moderately expensive area 9-10$ a ticket 5-6 per popcorn/drink.

Not factoring in other crap the spawn might want.

Man I'm glad I don't have kids.


I'm still trying to figure out a way to smuggle popcorn into the theatre. I'm surprised that's not piracy though :p
 
But they spent $9.5 billion complaining about pirates and buying politicians so that only nets them a paltry $500 million.
 
speaking of cost at the movies, me and my wife just wait until tuesdays - the theaters here have cheap nights. $5/person and we just bring some candy in - no way am i paying those prices for bloody popcorn. only thing i buy is a big cup of tea at the concession stand. costs under $2 so who cares.

but i do have to say that this has us going to the movies nearly every week so truth be told even not buying food and crap they are making their money off me and the RIAA isn't losing anything. that and there was a few movies this year that i really enjoyed so that helps too.
 
Steve said:
Once again we have absolute proof that pirates are bankrupting the movie industry. Good job all you file sharing bastards, you’ve ruined it for everyone.
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Ticket sales are not an indication of profit. Movies cost more to make and market than they did. A better number is profit and even that should be adjusted for inflation. Thus, Titanic has the highest gross, but adjusted for inflation, it's no Gone With the Wind.

Bottom line is that piracy hurts sales. I can't count the number of times i've seen people at work passing around copies of downloaded movies and they absolutely can afford to buy them, but why bother if you can do it for free. Why buy the DVD if you can download it for free?

That's the napster generation. That's the future. I hope there's a new business model, but so far I don't see one that will work. Nothing offers more value than a free digital copy.

And that folks is why we have crappy copy protection all over everything.
 
And all these big budget movies were shit popcornflicks not worth a second look except Moon.

Great job Hollywood.
 
THRESHIN said:
speaking of cost at the movies, me and my wife just wait until tuesdays - the theaters here have cheap nights. $5/person and we just bring some candy in - no way am i paying those prices for bloody popcorn. only thing i buy is a big cup of tea at the concession stand. costs under $2 so who cares.
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Not buying from the concession stands screws over the theatre, not "Hollywood." If you like your local theatre, you should buy stuff from them.
 
Watching cameron diaz's "the box" reminded me of why i pirate movies and why so few are worth my hard earned money.
 
m_three10 said:
Watching cameron diaz's "the box" reminded me of why i pirate movies and why so few are worth my hard earned money.
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While I'm in NO way shape or form anti piracy, your logic is flawed.

That experience should make you chose more wisely which movies you elect to pay to view in theaters. :)
 
Weenis said:
While I'm in NO way shape or form anti piracy, your logic is flawed.

That experience should make you chose more wisely which movies you elect to pay to view in theaters. :)
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no I'm sorry but his logic is perfect
 
Imaulle said:
no I'm sorry but his logic is perfect
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If hollywood can't put the same quality in all their movies, why then do theaters still charge the same amount for you to see them, no matter how good or god awful they might be?
 
too bad the most expensive movies are often the shittiest ones.
cgi does not a good movie make.

make more lower budget movies that are actually good. not $150million GI JOE crap.
 
SeegsElite said:
If hollywood can't put the same quality in all their movies, why then do theaters still charge the same amount for you to see them, no matter how good or god awful they might be?
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lol. ive never been to a theater where different movies cost different amounts. they really should, but theyd never be able to work that out. like a 4-hour epic with huge production values like LOTR should cost maybe $10, and some comedy with owen wilson that has no cgi and just a couple overpaid actors should be like $6.
 
SeegsElite said:
If hollywood can't put the same quality in all their movies, why then do theaters still charge the same amount for you to see them, no matter how good or god awful they might be?
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Because Hollywood is not a theater?

Theaters have to you know, pay for more than the rights to play the films. :rolleyes:
 
Keiichi said:
Not buying from the concession stands screws over the theatre, not "Hollywood." If you like your local theatre, you should buy stuff from them.
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once they make their prices even somewhat resonable i'd be happy to buy from them. i have no remorse for not buying their food nor should i - this is not a question of morals but a statement as to how the theater itself is ripping us off too. besides, with how crowded that place is usually i think they're doing just fine without my cash thanks.
 
To be fair, piracy affects DVD sales more than anything. A pirated shakycam cannot compete with the big screen surround sound experience. So I would not expect piracy to impact theater take at all.
 
I saw 2 movies this year on the big screen. Ive seen 200 + in my theater. So that's 15 bucks of the 10billion from me. :p
 
I have to say I just go to the movie theater about 1 or 2 times a month with my wife if there are movies that we really want to see as soon as they come out. But I don't buy anything at all at the movie theater since their prices are way too high $2.30 for a bottle of water? for god sake the 24 pack is like 4.50 at wallmart. How ever I have HTPC a nextflix account a 50' plasma a blue-ray player and a 15mbps internet connection that's all I need for my visual entertainment.:cool:
 
NKDietrich said:
To be fair, piracy affects DVD sales more than anything. A pirated shakycam cannot compete with the big screen surround sound experience. So I would not expect piracy to impact theater take at all.
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That's not what a former head of the MPAA said, "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."
 
While I don't advocate piracy, I'd have to say that 90% of the movies this year should have went straight to DVD. They were absolutely horrible. I think even calling them a "Wait to rent" movie would be giving them way too much credit. The actors are overpaid, the budgets are way too high for the shitty movie they make, and the plot/storylines are extremely weak.

I say fire all the directors, screenplay writers, etc. and start over with a new generation. Sure, there have been a few good movies, and I enjoy a good action flick. But, when the only good part of a movie is the action sequences, it's a shitty movie. Case in point: Matrix sequels sucked, Transformers 2 (good movie, probably because I love Transformers anyway), 2012, etc... That, and a lot of chick flicks are the SAME thing, different actors.

I don't think that piracy is going to kill Hollywood, it's going to be shitty movies.

10 Billion dollars, and the MPAA is still crying foul. :rolls eyes:
 
I have been to the movie theater once in the past three years. If the MPAA wants to make me buy tickets to their movies, they'll have to figure out a way to gag every motherfucker in the theater that ruins the experience for me, and also disable cellphone service.

Why pay twice as much as 10 years ago to listen to obnoxious teenagers and deal with constellations of cell phone displays in the crowd in front of me?

Better yet, why pay $20 to buy a movie I will watch one or two times on DVD or Blu-Ray?

No thanks, I'll wait until $1 rental night at the local rental shop. I do find it curious how sales of non-essentials like movies are setting records when the economy is supposedly so terrible.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Because I want the DVD and I can afford it. I could get all sorts of things for free if I wanted to, but I don't want to.
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If the current trends continue, you will be the exception to the rule. And around [H], a lot of people feel that it's ok, because the studios and music labels make too much money or do something else they don't like, or because they make crappy products (which they then download, watch/listen to for free).

I don't agree with many of these organization's political goals, but stealing from them just makes them more powerful and increases the likelihood that even more draconian laws will pass.
 
It wouldn't matter if Studios made $2 billion a year in profit it's those pesky imaginary dollars lost to privacy that they want most. Piracy will always be a trusty scapegoat because fantasy money can be any amount needed.
 
perrosky said:
I have to say I just go to the movie theater about 1 or 2 times a month with my wife if there are movies that we really want to see as soon as they come out. But I don't buy anything at all at the movie theater since their prices are way too high $2.30 for a bottle of water? for god sake the 24 pack is like 4.50 at wallmart. How ever I have HTPC a nextflix account a 50' plasma a blue-ray player and a 15mbps internet connection that's all I need for my visual entertainment.:cool:
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wow. I think it would be difficult for me to find 2 new movies that's worth watching every month:p

Most of today's movie just doesn't interest me. But obviously that's just me as movie sales are breaking records with movies like Twilight generating huge amount of cash (and also crazy followers):eek:
 
Imaulle said:
no I'm sorry but his logic is perfect
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Do you believe we should just pirate all of our games and software? Most games suck, so just pirate them. Sure you could buy the good ones, but why bother? You've already played it for free. And, of course, let's not forget the classic argument: they're too expensive.
Sure games and movies cost less than they did 20-30 years ago (especially if you adjust for inflation), but you can d/l for free, so the prices should be less.

Come on everyone, quit paying for stuff. You've got utorrent. Download it. Information wants to be free. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
dr.kevin said:
too bad the most expensive movies are often the shittiest ones.
cgi does not a good movie make.

make more lower budget movies that are actually good. not $150million GI JOE crap.
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Did you go to GI Joe? Why? It was clear from the trailers that it was a vapid crap. The reality is that there are a lot of people that show up at theaters for that crap. I'm not one of them (though I did go to 2012, which was only good during the L.A. destruction scenes which was laugh out loud funny). I knew it wasn't going to be great, but WTH.

I fail to see how going to see a movie, like 2012 or GI Joe, which were exactly what one would expect them to be, are valid reasons for downloading movies. Go rent them if you don't want to pay for tickets, but simply stealing them tells hollywood, "We like your films, but it's cheaper on bit torrent." It doesn't tell them, "the movies sucked and weren't what we want to see."
 
well, downloading something doesn't really mean that the person liked it.
 
My home theater rules. SCREW the people at the theater texting on their cell phone at brightness 10+. Stupid teenagers. Young whippersnappers. Bah!
 
nilepez said:
Did you go to GI Joe? Why? It was clear from the trailers that it was a vapid crap. The reality is that there are a lot of people that show up at theaters for that crap. I'm not one of them (though I did go to 2012, which was only good during the L.A. destruction scenes which was laugh out loud funny). I knew it wasn't going to be great, but WTH.

I fail to see how going to see a movie, like 2012 or GI Joe, which were exactly what one would expect them to be, are valid reasons for downloading movies. Go rent them if you don't want to pay for tickets, but simply stealing them tells hollywood, "We like your films, but it's cheaper on bit torrent." It doesn't tell them, "the movies sucked and weren't what we want to see."
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Don't you see a slight problem though? If you go see the movie and think it sucked, how does Hollywood know that from the sales figures? You don't get your money back just because you didn't like it(unlike any real, physical product, even consumable ones).
 
If they're making that much money why is everything so damned expensive and getting more expensive?

I'm more inclined to pirate to counteract their greed. Not because they're taking my countrymen to court and ruining their lives (well, not solely because of that) but because they cant satiate their undying lust for more, MORE!

Fuck you MPAA and other rich bastards.
 
I say we all stop pirating for a year. If your opinion of a movie or song is, "I'll try it out and might buy it if I like it," don't even look at it. Hollywood's profits would go down, piracy would hit an all-time low, and the MPAA and RIAA would be crushed in court.

Don't think that'll ever happen, though. Everyone seems to be taking the "pirate as much as possible in protest" approach, which, while it may work eventually, is certainly the long way around. In the short term, it's just fueling the *AA's fire.
 
Just to clarify, downloading videos through torrents is Copyright Infringement.

Buying a burnt copy of a movie is Theft.

The difference is physically removing something from someone else.
 
BloodyIron said:
Just to clarify, downloading videos through torrents is Copyright Infringement.

Buying a burnt copy of a movie is Theft.

The difference is physically removing something from someone else.
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No, not quite. Burnt movies are copyright infringement violations too. They're copies and the person who burned and sold them are making money. There's no theft.

Taking originals from a DVD store without paying for it is theft.
 
This is no big news really, they do not complain because they lack profit. And I really don't believe anyone in their right mind would believe the "piracy will kill music/movies etc" theory.

The sole reason they complain is because they want MORE money. Not more, MORE money.

Personally I rarely rent some dvd movies, and went to the movies just once this year. It's not that I couldnt download, or that I don't do it based on some principle thingy. It's just that they are not worthy not even for the time and space they'll take in my hdd.

PS : Games were mentioned. Games are a whole different thing, I think even a slightly bad game will most certainly offer you way more time for your investment. I buy them all original, but that doesnt mean I buy them at full price (exceptions aside). Not to mention the replay value that is close to zero in movies.
 
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