As Hollywood Insists Canada Is A Den Of Copyright Thieves, Movie Business Is Thriving

from the funny-how-that-works... dept

Wed, Nov 11th 2009 12:12pm — Mike Masnick

For years, Hollywood has pushed a totally ridiculous claim that Canada is somehow a den of copyright thieves, and it needs to make its copyright laws much more strict. This fantasy has worked on journalists and politicians, who insist that the movie industry is dying in Canada due to rampant piracy. Except someone forgot to inform the real world. An anonymous reader sends over the news that the owners of Cineplex in Canada are reporting record box office sales and revenue, even with the current economic downturn. Once again (and yes, we've been pointing this out for a decade), it appears that it's the actual experience that gets people to go to the movies. The folks at Cineplex note that a growing number of highly experiential films -- such as those using IMAX or 3D technology -- has really helped in getting more people into the theater and in getting them to pay more.

Oh, and as a special note to NBC Universal's General Counsel, Rick Cotton, who seemed so worried about those poor corn farmers who would be decimated by piracy, you can rest easy:

Concession revenues did well due to a film slate that catered to family audiences, who tend to be higher concession spenders.

Phew. Now Rick can go back to working on ways to stop people from watching the Olympics and figuring out ways to avoid paying copyright royalties to songwriters.

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Filed Under: canada, copyright, movies, piracy
Companies: cineplex

19 Comments

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senshikaze (profile), 11 Nov 2009 @ 12:21pm

didn't you know that Canadians have been stealing our copyrights since the late 1800's? i mean damn. I know there are a lot of nothing up there, but get a job, you freeloaders!

:)

http://www.inpropriapersona.com/2009/04/music-pirates-in-canada-american.html
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senshikaze (profile), 11 Nov 2009 @ 12:23pm

Re:
and yes, I understand the irony of my avatar and what i said.
I am allowed to contradict myself.

(comic its from: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=156)
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Designerfx (profile), 11 Nov 2009 @ 12:37pm

don't forget this from todahy
Im not sure if this is canada or not, though.

http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-may-kill-zombieland-sequel-writer-claims-091111/

As noted on TF, it's the highest grossing zombie movie on record or something, but the writer lauds piracy as why they might not make a sequel.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Nov 2009 @ 12:39pm

Ummma couple of things:

1) Cineplex isn't the entire industry in Canada. It would be like using Ford to represent the car industry and deny the rest of them needed help.

2) You need to read further down to the comments, which include things like "the movie industry is on it's last legs".

Technology that cannot easily be reproduced at home (3D and Imax) is nice, but perhaps a nice cover up for a business that might otherwise be suffering?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Nov 2009 @ 12:49pm

Re: don't forget this from todahy
Ugh, he's a moron. Look at his earlier tweet where he actually takes the 60 Minutes Piracy Shillfest seriously.
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Simon, 11 Nov 2009 @ 1:20pm

Re:
You mean that a business may need to innovate to remain healthy? Say it aint so!
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Nov 2009 @ 1:31pm

Re: Re:
Isn't it easier to bribe, I mean, lobby politicians in order to pass laws so they don't need to innovate?

It's the American dream!
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Nov 2009 @ 1:56pm

Re:
Deny the rest of them needed help? Why do they need help?

If they can't stay afloat while another company is doing just fine, then clearly they are doing something wrong.

If they can't get off their own asses and actually try to keep themselves relevant in the market, then they die. That's called economics, capitalism, and whatever else you want to name it.

It's not anyone's job to bail out business failures.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Nov 2009 @ 2:11pm

Re: Re:
Notice I didn't say "bail out". I said "needed help". But hey, you are trying to drag away from the main point:

If Cineplez is doing well, how is the rest of the industry in canada doing? DVD sales? Other movie chains? PPV revenues?

Without all the information, it's just cherry picking and trying to make things look better than they are, a class techduh move.
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Mike Zachaczewski, 11 Nov 2009 @ 2:14pm

Experience you cannot get at home
Right now movie theaters that provide a 3d experience are doing great but soon you will be able to get televisions which can produce that experience at home. You can also pause a movie at home, grab another beer and not be bothered by people adding their own soundtrack with their ringtones.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 11 Nov 2009 @ 2:29pm

Re: Experience you cannot get at home
"You can also pause a movie at home, grab another beer and not be bothered by people adding their own soundtrack with their ringtones."

You know, it REALLY is unfortunate how problematic this is and how much I think it truly does hurt revenue. I took my girlfriend to see The Fourth Kind (ridiculously awesome movie, btw) recently, and some of the folks in the movie ruined it for me. Just flat out ruined it. Between cell phones, constant jabbering, tons of people going in and out of their seats....it was just awful.

And I knew it would be, too. I won't pirate movies out of a sense of respect for the artists that actually MAKE the content and don't want their art distributed that way. I don't always agree with them, but as an author I consider them brothers in creation and choose to respect their wishes as best I can. So home viewing wasn't yet an option, and what can I say, the girl wanted to go out so I took her.

How tough of a problem is this really? The main issue is that interuptions of sound in a movie fucking blow. How have theatres not followed the perfect example found in the airplane and installed headphone jacks in the seats? I don't get it. It's another revenue stream, because you can pay for those cheapy little headphones, or you could have the option to bring your own. It might seem wierd at first to have everyone wearing them, but you're not supposed to be talking during the movie anyway, so what difference would the headphones ultimately make?

I don't get it. That one just seems like an easy fix to me...
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Nov 2009 @ 2:57pm

Re: Re: Re:
Good luck "helping" any business/industry without...a bail out of some sort.
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bigpicture, 11 Nov 2009 @ 4:21pm

Socialists and Communists
Imagine with all those socialists and communist thieves in Canada, and they didn't have to apply any corporate welfare or bail out any thieving banks. Could it be something about running and regulating businesses correctly? Where corporate welfare is not seen as an entitlement and where natural laws apply, like when your environment changes, "adapt or die".
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I'm convinced, 11 Nov 2009 @ 6:05pm

Re:
"2) You need to read further down to the comments, which include things like "the movie industry is on it's last legs"."

Someone says so in the comments, that's good enough for me
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Nov 2009 @ 8:43pm

What customers want
http://www.muvico.com/pdf/Muvico_Corporate_About_Us.pdf
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Nov 2009 @ 3:53am

Re: Socialists and Communists
In the case of the banks, it was because if you finance a property to more than 75% of it's value, you need to have insurance on the mortgage. Effectively, it means that either (a) the homeowner is never underwater, and at least 25% to the good, or (b) someone is insuring the load.

The insurance is key, because the insurance companies won't sign up to cover stupid loans. A check and a balance.

Too bad you can't do that in the US, because it would "violate your constitutional rights", or something to that effect.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Nov 2009 @ 2:29pm

Re: Re: Re:
Why should we care?

As I said, if the "rest of the industry" is failing, and one portion of it is doing better than ever, then clearly the rest of it is doing a piss-poor job at business.

It's the business' job to help themselves, not anyone else's. If they need help, too bad. Welcome to the business world.
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Morisato (profile), 13 Nov 2009 @ 10:25am

How dare they blame us Canadians. First off any country not monitored or controlled by RIAA/MPAA is considered most pirating country. They want to get there grubby hands in everything much as government wants to control the internet. I know there are many bad things that go on for either one of them but there should be measures to be taken where it doesn't start invading everyone's privacy. Sometimes I agree with people that say if you are not doing anything wrong, there is nothing to hide. I'd only agree to that if they didn't start cutting people off/throttling if they are just downloading movies or what not. Focus on the person behind the scenes there is usually 1-2 that is driving it that is the most experience of all the followers. There is a whole lot more to say but I'm too lazy to type the rest. All in all, if piracy is such a factor, why do they keep bringing out B-C rated movies? Some of them are so bad you wonder why they even made it on film. Therefore that just points out that Hollywood has too much money on there grubby hands and wants more from the poor. Live within your means I say.
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Fred Frith, 14 Nov 2009 @ 3:16pm

Ex RCMP hides in Cinema for a year waiting.
An Ex RCMP officer was hired by a Montreal Cinema Chain to hide in the theatre with IR Night goggles, I can imagine this guy glowing green in the back row, to hunt down camcorders in action. Well, he waited and waited and waited and became a most excellent film critic while overdosing on the concession stand.
He not once caught anyone using a camcorder during his impressive undercover operation. SO much for all the den business.

All of this hulabaloo is to make the insane DCMA global and why not start with your neighbours eh?
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