Movie Critic To Movie Industry: Wake Up, Start Giving Consumers What They Want

from the exactly dept

We're seeing a ton of bogus claims coming out of the UK lately about how movie piracy is somehow destroying the industry. So it's good to see not everyone is buying into these false statements. Gavin King points us to a great rant by Mark Kermode, a well known film critic in the UK who points out that piracy isn't a consumer problem, but an industry problem, because the industry still treats everyone like criminals (such as taking away mobile phones from viewers, not that anyone can film a whole movie on their phone) and refuses to give them what they want. As an example of doing things the right way, he talks about a recent film in the UK that did a "day and date" release, launching the film in theaters, DVD, pay-per-view and online all on the same day, letting people decide for themselves how, when and where they wanted to see the film. Unfortunately, when they tried that here in the US, the theaters revolted, refusing to show the film. Still, if we start seeing more successes when that's done, eventually, the theaters will have to cave in, and focus on what's always worked for theaters: making the overall experience better.

Filed Under: critic, mark kermode, movie industry, uk