Hollywood reports record takings

[VCDHunter]

Hollywood's major studios made a record $10.85bn (£5.8bn) at the international box office last year - despite the rise in film piracy.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) put the 5% rise since 2002 down to rising ticket prices.

Although ticket earnings have risen, the total tickets sold has dropped 5% internationally and 12% in Europe.

In a bid to combat piracy, the MPAA has unveiled two cinema trailers carrying the message: "Piracy is a crime."

The trailers suggest buying illegal DVDs is the same as car theft and will be tailored for individual countries around the world.

'Persuasion'

MPAA president Jack Valenti told film industry conference ShoWest in Las Vegas that US ticket sales account for 47% of Hollywood studio income, with the rest coming from elsewhere in the world.

He said film piracy was a growing problem in countries like China and Russia, but he was "confident" that it could be brought under "tolerable levels of control" in two to three years.

Mr Valenti said the problem could be tackled "through technological magic, through government intervention all over the world, through educational and other persuasive programmes".

Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, president of international distribution at Warner Bros, said the international audience for Hollywood films was "truly enormous these days".

But she added that piracy was "a growing threat".

"But she added that piracy was "a growing threat"."

To what exactly ? If companies are posting record profits and films are generally getting worse ( I mean 11 Oscars for LOTR ) Its hardly the end of Hollywood is it ? Films are getting worse but making more money - maybe they should attribute this to piracy.

[teegee420]

Good point. What they don't realize(or simply cannot admit) is that even movie pirates generate word of mouth advertising.

[jeex]

In a bid to combat piracy, the MPAA has unveiled two cinema trailers carrying the message: "Piracy is a crime."

man i cant wait to get the ctp TS of that. heh

[teegee420]

I'm a TCR guy these days.

[Alan69]

What absolute idiots and ass-coverers the MPAA are. Blame everything on "oh there's so much piracy" without even doing a common sense business look at their own dirty ass. What they really need is some TP for their bungholes.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) put the 5% rise since 2002 down to rising ticket prices.

Although ticket earnings have risen, the total tickets sold has dropped 5% internationally and 12% in Europe.

Raise prices, less sales? That part is an absolute no duh. Whoever jumped from there to "we lost ticket sales to piracy" is a total fool and couldn't pass business 101. Yet they're speaking for the MPAA. To still have gained 5% in sales means they rose by more than 5%, they're lucky they only had a 5% drop in number. And economies are still crap in many European countries, of course there'll be a larger drop there if you hike prices.

Theatre owners are interested ONLY in profits. They will hike the prices until they make the most money off of servicing the least number of people. That is simple business, but it's extremely short sighted. By creating a smaller core audience on purpose, any outside pressures or down years are going to be worse than they would be from a wider base. And with each ticket costing more, each lost sale will hurt more. The boom years will still boom and with less work, but the bust years will be far worse. They're all in for a bumpy ride soon because they're too stupid to keep a long term broad base business model in mind. It isn't even hard to take their piracy spin out of it and see this is simple business cause and effect, so how dumb must they be?

If the MPAA really wanted to protect the business they'd rein some of this crap in a bit. Instead they let it go unchecked because it looks better short term on paper. But you know for sure the next down year, the MPAA is going to be looking high and low for people to blame, even though you can see it coming and it's their own damn fault..

Alan

[FOO]

I like the term "takings" here instead of "earnings"

[VCDHunter]

In a bid to combat piracy, the MPAA has unveiled two cinema trailers carrying the message: "Piracy is a crime."

man i cant wait to get the ctp TS of that. heh

preferaby done on a shaky cam with some fuckers head in the way

[teegee420]

I'm sure FTF will come through on that one.