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SUNDAY UPDATE: Twentieth Century Fox Film Chairman/CEO Jim Gianopulos tells me that the end card anti-piracy project was suggested by the Obama administration. “It was actually an idea of Vice President Biden’s when we visited him during a MPAA Board meeting earlier this year. We thought it was an excellent suggestion and adopted the idea and will continue for all movies going forward.” So far no other studio has adopted it.
PREVIOUS… SATURDAY: It’s hard for Hollywood to explain to consumers about the losses to the movie industry caused by piracy. Especially when talking heads like studio moguls and government officials try and fail. So kudos to Ted Gagliano, president of 20th Century Fox feature post-production, who began putting end cards on the studio’s movies like this one. 
It’s on Walden Media/Fox’s Chasing Mavericks now in theaters. It explains the hours and jobs involved in making movies and indicates how they will be lost through piracy. “This is something we instituted starting with Taken 2,” 20th Century Fox distribution boss Chris Aronson tells me. “I think it’s a fantastic initiative and am glad we are doing it. More should.”
Related: MPAA To Candidates: Anti-Piracy Remains A “Critical” Priority
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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This is pure propaganda. A recent study found that those who download music, movies, and TV shows are more likely to buy DVDs/Blu Rays and CDs than those who don’t. Hollywood needs to wake up and realize those who pirate and download movies aren’t the problem.
Then how do u explain the 80% drop in DVD sales from its peak?
Why would anyone pay for something when they can get it free?
Ask those who don’t download movies that questions because those are the people who are more likely to not buy DVDs/Blu Rays.
My honest answer is the quality has gone down hill and Blu Ray is getting bigger. When big movies come out to DVD/Blu Ray like Avatar The Dark Knight, The Avengers, Star Wars, and so on they sell huge and break records. Why? Because they are great movies.
I am in no way defending piracy, but the drop in DVD sales has a lot more factors than simple piracy. Streaming content, lack of shelf space, saturation of the catalog films and multiple bites of the same apple (i.e. numerous special editions of the same film) all factor in there. It also became less “trendy” to have the big DVD collection.
Uhh, Netflix? Hulu? Video on Demand? Redbox?
Legal downloads and legal streaming have cut into DVD sales.
I’ve been burned with blind buys.
Also, using your logic, why would anyone buy something after they already saw it?
There’s got to be another answer as to why people aren’t buying content.
Oh pleaae! Don’t even try to blame the 80 % drop in DVD sales on piracy. DVDs have fallen b/c consumers are buying from iTunes, Hulu, and Netflix streaming. Why go to the store and buy a DVD for $20 when you can stay home and stream several movies for $10/month?
People are forgetting a mild recession started about the same time the fall in the DVD market first began. Combined with rising gas prices at the time and the much more noticeable economic free fall sometime after, there was just no way the low to middle income consumer were capable of continuing their binge of physical media at $20 a pop. Further declines could be attributed to alternative programming a la Redbox, Netflix, and growth in DVR usage over that time span.
The point is, there are clear explanations other than piracy which was around before the DVD market peaked. It was a fad and the industry needs to get over it because the market will never recover even if the broke, 20-year-old male demographic who lives with their parents is no longer able to steal intellectual property.
Love how you conveniently forgot to mention rental and streaming services such as Netflix. I’d say Netflix is a much bigger reason for the decline in DVD sales than piracy. Consumers are just smarter these days. They know digital is the future and everything will eventually be streamable. Why pay $20 for one DVD when you can pay $8 a month and watch as many as you want?
Online piracy of movies is still very common here in Sweden. Also remember that The Pirate Bay is Swedish. Sweden ranked number one in the world, on internet dependency and got excellent broadband for a low price. Here it feels very old to buy your movies on plastic. It is true that legal streaming services taken some part of the market, but also it is legal in Sweden to watch (but not distribute) “illegal video streams” that someone else made available.
Because of digital distribution. Buying digital copies of movies of Amazon and iTunes is severely eating into that market. Distributors should focus on that instead.
Let’s see!
1. iTunes
2. Netflix
3. Amazon Prime
4. Blu-ray
ding ding ding and the winner is crappy products!
Can anyone be this clueless?
There are many reasons for the drop of DVD sales. The biggest reason is that the novelty of DVDs has completely disappeared; they are now a commodity. A second reason is the vast resources of the Netflix library: you can get virtually any movie on DVD delivered to your mailbox in a day or two. And those who don’t have a Netflix subscription can get DVDs of recent releases and popular long-term titles at the ubiquitous neighborhood Redbox machine. Finally, many high-end customers just don’t want to bother with plastic discs; they get their movies through Internet download or streaming services of Apple, Amazon, Google, and others.
One other reason for the drop of DVD sales: customers are tired of DVDs that force them to watch trailers for other movies. They wonder why some Hollywood studio should be able to hijack the controls of their DVD player. What a stupid anti-customer arrogance these studios have!
Just like the stupid FBI warnings we’re forced to watch, these propaganda-graphics will not have a shred of impact on piracy of movies.
Do DVD sales take into account Blu-Ray sales, or sales on iTunes? I actually buy/download most of my movies from the latter.
Redbox. Netflix. iTunes rentals. Streaming. Most people would rather rent for super cheap than buy a $30 blu-ray.
Hulu
Redbox
Netflix
iTunes
360/ps3 streaming movies and TV shows
Because (1) home entertainment moved to Bluray, Netflix, Redbox, iTunes, Amazon, etc. and (2) the consumers lost interest in an aging format.
I assure you that 80% of the market did not convert to piracy.
Uh, maybe that 80% drop (assuming you’re right) is due largely to the fact that the DVD is nearing obsolescence. The new iMacs announced this past week don’t even come with an optical drive. There are a plethora of ways to legally own or see a film these days multiple times without buying the DVD.
Also, as the DVD has aged, the novelty of spending hundreds and hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on a huge DVD library that just sits there has most certainly worn off. I’m a huge cinephile, but the amount of DVD’s I own that I’ll never watch again is obscene. It’s a waste of money, and most have woken up to this fact. For years, people threw away $20 to $40 to $100+ “special editions” of films, watched them once, and then watched them collect dust. And now they’ve wised up. No one needs to by a DVD anymore, and it has nothing to do with piracy.
Also, studies done have shown that online piracy has not affected box office numbers. There is no difference in the quality or enjoyment of a pirated song than one you buy on iTunes — but a film is not a song. And those who will tolerate the imperfection of pirated versions of films have been shown to be individuals who wouldn’t have paid for it in the first place.
A) Significant drop in quality of movies lately. Thing about it: how many movies did you see in the last three years that were worth buying?
B) Notice how none of the sales figures the studios release include digital sales or On Demand views? Physical media is on the way out, yet the suits cling to it for dear life and use piracy as an excuse for consumer’s waning interest.
Wonder how many of those employees were lawyers. Boo hoo.
Piracy was just as big when DVD sales were at its peak. The drop is probably because times change. People are buying blu-rays instead (if you’re not lumping it with DVDs), or they get their movies through iTunes or other digital media. Also during the peak, Netflix wasn’t around and steaming also wasn’t around. Now people subscribe to places like Netflix or Amazon and watch a movie straight from the internet instead of buying them. Things like Netflix and iTunes would definitely hurt physical sales as they are subscription based or digital.
But was there a rise in blu-ray, and digital downloads and rentals?
People did it all the time with this technology called “Radio.”
It was broadcast for free, people tapped songs off of it, but it engaged people in the activity of listening to music, which was enjoyable when the DJ picked songs, not payola, and the advertisements were minimal. But things changed in radio; Advertisements and Payola grew, and People reduced their radio listening.
As for the drop in DVD sales from their peak, that peak consisted of people replacing their collection from VHS to DVD quality, but when you can have digital HD, why would buy discs that take up space and are a pain to haul around when you move, when you can have it all in a hard drive? And if you look at modern DVDs, you find advertisements that you can’t skip past, sometimes you have to endure 15 minutes of them before you can see the movie you paid to see. But with Bit Torrents, those things are cut out, and you can get them fast, you don’t have to wait for the movie release.
If the Studios gave people what they wanted (Less ads, High Quality, quick releases), they would never go to piracy. But there are lots of geezers in charge, who ain’t sure about this internet thing, and who don’t know how to create new revenue streams; They’re corporate yes men, not the maverick moguls of back in the day, so they would rather invest in fighting new technologies instead of embracing them.
So if studios wants to put trailers on films exposing unfair actions, maybe when those films become bit torrents, we’ll see some Anon made trailers, featuring unfair studio accounting and other gaffs, like how Harry potter made no money: http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/studio-shame-even-harry-potter-pic-loses-money-because-of-warner-bros-phony-baloney-accounting/ Or redbox’s Lawsuit with Fox, or the whole unpaid intern thing…
Amen to the Blackbeard! Well said/typed.
has nothing to do with piracy… the consumers that bought DVDs at walmart, target and best buy (which made up over 75% of the sell thru market) do not download illegal…
-RnsW
Please explain which part of this message is untrue.
When I finished reading the brief report on 20th Century Fox’s new practice, I expected to see some comments in support of the endeavor and some against, perhaps on some principle that it disrupts their moviegoing experience.
Instead, I read a series of comments on the merits and nobility of theft and the perceived assault on moviegoers by filmmakers in their hope to be compensated for producing entertainment that is of value. It’s like I awakened in some sort of alternate universe in which it’s rude to be paid for your work, and just freakin’ awesome to steal from someone, especially if you imagine they have more than you do.
Nevermind the post-production supervisor who finally got a job as a cut-rate assistant editor on the film, after six years of not finding any work at all, or the producer who lost the family home they grew up in because their three previous films were buried in marketing clutter and because they couldn’t buy their way into theatrical distribution, audiences never knew about them and they tanked.
BTW, if filmmakers can’t hope to be paid, especially on riskier stories, the industry will continue to dole out sure-fire blockbuster drivel to sustain itself.
And if filmmakers have a chance to take care of their employees, investors (who are often hardworking family and friends who believe in the story and the storytellers), and are able to provide for their families from the proceeds of their work on a film, I understand from the comments here that stealing from them is the right thing to do; the best reason being that thieves might have bought something else from someone else some other time or, in second place, because the thief is convinced that someone who makes more than they do has earned not our patronage or loyalty, but our wrath.
I hesitate to introduce words such as honor or integrity into such a conversation as they might serve only to further erode those profoundly arrogant positions that shine the spotlight on their writers’ disrespect and even contempt for their fellow humans and for the laws meant to guide us toward civility and fairness. How quickly might our world devolve if we all ignored the laws that did not serve our insatiable lust to possess stuff at the expense of any other who might have it…
Wait a minute, I think I see a premise here for a screenplay… If I say more, someone here may feel overcome with a sense of entitlement and develop it as their own… It’s a good thing none of those commenting here are responsible for script development at any studios…
Of course now that I think about it, every movie in the current zombie genre frenzy is a commentary on the devolution of humanity, depicting what happens what is honorable and fair is worthless and going for the jugular to get whatever you want is the new normal.
On the merits of 20th Century’s endeavor to inform. I don’t think anyone would be surprised that I am in support of it, don’t feel it disrupts the experience in any way, and I hope the concept spreads to other filmmakers.
Goodnight.
dear craig richards, you are not concise.
the internet is here and piracy is here to stay.
i dont want the post production editor to loose job/home.
However why dont you say that the studio execs need to take a pay cut?
Stop with the unnecc car service, private jet, work lunches, etcc?
movie studios need to make quality movies not remakes (spiderman JUST came out in May 20002 yet it was remade just 10yrs later this year, WHY?)
I don’t think anyone said stealing movies was good or okay. I think what they are saying is that times are changing and the movie industry is clinging to old methods of revenue and then crying when they are failing or at the very least flailing.
“I read a series of comments on the merits and nobility of theft and the perceived assault on moviegoers by filmmakers in their hope to be compensated for producing entertainment that is of value. It’s like I awakened in some sort of alternate universe in which it’s rude to be paid for your work, and just freakin’ awesome to steal from someone, especially if you imagine they have more than you do.”
I agree with you that most of this are rationalizations for theft. But if you take your words and then apply that to the fact that Hollywood is overwhelmingly Democrat/liberal/progressive, there’s a good bit of irony there.
“I agree with you that most of this are rationalizations for theft. But if you take your words and then apply that to the fact that Hollywood is overwhelmingly Democrat/liberal/progressive, there’s a good bit of irony there.”
Why?
Taking/stealing people’s money and the fruit of their labor and not feeling bad about it because the victim “has enough” or is greedy with the other side arguing that money produces jobs, etc.
The irony is definitely there.
There isn’t any irony. Stealing someone’s product is not the same as being taxed by the government.
Put a sock in it, Craig. No one defended stealing. They criticized industry practices. Not the same thing. Build your straw men elsewhere.
No one here is defending movie piracy. But if you’ve read some of the earlier comments in this thread, the studios are misleading consumers about the real reason for the decline in DVD sales. Sure, there is some piracy going on, but the big bulk of the drop in DVD sales is structural in nature and has more to do with changing consumer options than illegal bootlegs and downloads. DVD sales were already beginning to go downhill when there was the huge format war between Blu Ray and HD-DVD, and I predicted even then that this would be a pyrrhic victory for whomever came out on top, because Netflix and streaming content would overtake DVD sales a few years later. As it is right now, I can stream the latest home release of the latest summer movie blockbuster or the prior season of a popular scripted TV show via Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or even my local “On Demand” cable or satellite box. Granted, some people like having the extras in their DVD’s like interviews, behind the scenes making of the movie, deleted scenes, etc., but most viewers would just rather watch the movie one more time and be done with it, so they don’t necessarily need or want to buy a DVD.
I’m not too sure about that study at all.
Have you ever talked to any kid, any adult, who routinely downloads/pirates movies & music? And mentioned that’s it’s illegal? Yeah. They look at you like you’re a twit and either change the subject or move on. THEY DON’T CARE. And no amount of ‘end cards’ at the finish of a movie will change that.
Imagine using this tactic when Napster and the other pirate sites were giving away music like crazy! Think it would have worked back then? The fact is that the genie’s out of the bottle and you can’t get him back in.
HOWEVER, like The Apple Store, if you make movie CHEAP enough to download (like $ .99 a song – or movie, perhaps?) — PEOPLE WILL COME. The Apple Store has proved that for over a million downloads!! So what the heck don’t you understand, Hollywood? The writing’s on the wall in giant letters. This “End Card” business is nothing short of laughable – and by that, I mean all the people who pirate are laughing at you. Can’t you hear them???
They should put a similar message detailing how many people got paid out on their “profit sharing” i.e. net points for that studio’s projects over the past year.
Let’s face it. Very hard to convince consumers to feel sorry for actors/producers who may get $5M a movie instead of $10M.
When in reality it’s all the small indie films which end up hurting the most. When such huge huge box numbers are constantly bandied around people don’t feel guilty not contributing their $8.
They are not trying to make us feel sorry for the actors/producers. They want us to realize that more than just actors/producers are involved. It’s the Gaffs, the boom operators, craft services, PA’s, casting directors, location scouts, stunt doubles, stand ins, writers, those who work in the mail room, set builders, everyone working at every level on the marketing team, even the people behind the counter at the movie theater hurt when people pirate-hence the 14,000.
Do you seriously think anyone in power at Fox cares a whit about these people? Because, they don’t.
Right. Pirates are stealing money out of the studios’ pocketbooks, but it’s OK to use creative bookkeeping to keep from having to pay people their rightful royalties.
That’s so true!
Digital Sales are taking over, as are streaming options. Give people legal, safe options to get their products most people will take it.
Also, DVD sales have not dropped 80% and Blu Ray sales are picking up momentum.
“Then how do u explain the 80% drop in DVD sales from its peak?”
…iTunes. Who wants a pile of DVD clutter?
im pretty sure if movie tickets were cheaper there would not be a problem. People are so tight with money they really have to pick and choose what movies to see in theaters and some movies are not appealing enough to go pay 12.50 plus popcorn and soda. With that money you spent you might as well wait for dvd and just own it.
load of bs! reason dvds are down coz of other avenues such as netflix itunes and other stuff, sure theres piracy but to say it affecta bottom dollar is crap! just a poor excuse for all the remakes and the bombs at the boxoffice! studios make so much money thru re runs its beyond ridicolous, how about they release their syndication numbers of every film and tv show over the last 20 years!!!
It is easy to blow off piracy as OK and point fingers at the studios and actors who make a big paycheck, but, there is significant impact, especially with smaller productions, to the true workforce/labor. The bottom line is profits and if they are cut into, it isn’t those at the top of the food chain who are hurt. Beyond that, those of us that love film are impacted by the loss or reduction in productions outside of the blockbuster boredom that is permeating cinema today because some geek feels it is his right to steal something just because he can.
If piracy causes so much revenue to be lost, then why haven’t I heard a single director blame piracy for their movie’s failure at the box office???
BATTLESHIP was released in China and Russia first (supposed piracy capitals of the world), yet I didn’t hear Peter Berg or anyone else blame its dismal performance in the US on piracy.
I am not advocating piracy. But how about a title card to explain high ticket prices and 3D surcharges on product that will be out on Blu-ray in 90 days?
OMG! I just had a great idea! Let’s hold a telethon for the Studios! It’s worse than Haiti or New Orleans!
It’s hard to buy into this sob story when you see how much the top billed actors make and what the studio execs are pulling in a year. If the wealth was more evenly distributed amongst all the people who work on a film then maybe this might impact on viewers.
Furthermore, why are you putting the guilt trip on the people who actually paid the $12 to see these terrible movies? If they already forked over their cash to see the movie, then they aren’t the problem. This idea is dumb.
Anyone opposed simply doesn’t know the industry – as an art or business. It’s that simple. In 2012 it’s no longer up for debate.
How do you explain “the 80% drop in DVD sales from its peak”?
How about $23 for recycled dreck? How about no kid will pay to buy a DVD to be able see 88 minutes of stupid Dick Jokes more than once? How about Stars that aren’t? They might buy dreck if the DVD cost %7 or less and buy quality films if the price topped out at oh, say, $13. Just like the music business, trying to squeeze every last dime out of the consumer for third rate crap creates an atmosphere of mutual contempt wherein a certain percentage of the public will rip you off and feel OK about it.
Maybe lower movie prices so a family of four can go or stop putting crAppy movies out there that waste 60,000 hours of Americans life
It’ll be interesting to see if the unions take umbrage and start responding to how many American jobs were lost due to runaway productions.
Good. More ideas like it.
When is the last time you have stayed and watched all the credits? If you want people to see it – put in front. Same for mpaa ratings. After you watch the whole movie, after the endless credits and now the anti piracy – then you see the rating that shows you the film was not appropriate for your daughter crying next to you.
Let’s see…Netflix, HULU, VUDU, Playstation Network, XBOX live, BluRay, YouTube, Crackle, Ultraviolet, Second Hand Stores, iTunes, The ratio of movies developed by independent studios that didn’t exist before flooding the market. The list goes on and on.
the Avengers had the highest grossing opening weekend ever. Dark Knight Rises opened higher than Dark Knight. The Hunger Games broke spring records. Plus, Skyfall, The Hobbit, and Twilight are still to come. Tell me once more about piracy…
Perhaps if prices were lower, more people wouldn’t hesitate. When the movies were first embraced, they were the cheapest forms of entertainment. Now, you wanna see Tyler Perry dance around in a wig you’re paying $10 after 6pm.
Given the huge chunk of piracy occurs outside of the US, do they really think that lauding the number of American jobs provided by legal distribution will matter one iota?
I agree that they should lose the word American, unless that’s only for US theatres.
This s probably for American consumption only. Americans are pretty sensitive to the loss of American jobs, because of their impact on our economy and foreigners probably don’t care, so they are a lost cause, forget them.
Will this card be going out on international releases too?
Given the sort of films that are being made these days – especially those with visual effects/post-production – are very much international affairs, it wouldn’t be fair to simply say “14,000 American jobs” . And where exactly do they get their figures? Are they intending putting up a web site or something in which people can scrutinise the figures? I doubt it very much. Anybody can make silly figures up. And it’s going to do absolutely nothing whatsoever to deter pirates – I doubt seriously they’ll have a sudden conscience based around those facts.
Piracy is going to exist regardless of whatever technological measures are put in place to stop it. Regardless of whatever conscience-inducing facts that are placed before or after a film. Regardless of whatever legal text written in law or on the film itself. Regardless of however many web sites are shut down, pirates sued and jailed. It will continue to happen.
I’d have suggested perhaps inviting the great unwashed public to open film sets once in while to let people see first hand the work that goes into making films, but this still wouldn’t stop piracy. \
What may slow it down would be to (a) treat home consumers with some respect and don’t DRM the damn film to high heaven – it’s far more difficult for me to watch movies at home now because of having to keep updating firmware or software and to suffer technological foul-ups from VoD services than it ever was simply by putting a VHS tape in a machine and pressing play and (b) have more sensible release windows. I am sick and tired of Fox’s purchase/rent window. I rarely buy films, preferring to rent, but I’m being penalised by Fox here in the UK because they have a week or two long window to buy stuff via iTunes before I can rent it.
Comments are exactly right about pirates helping instead of hurting the industry and the industry only hurting itself and being a baby about by blaming this little issue for a larger issue: their own laziness and greed destroying the movie industry. They could very easily just give the world what it wants instead of trying to “convince” the world to accept higher prices and lousy products. The music industry made the same exact mistake. So did the airlines industry and car industry. Most of these companies blamed 9/11 and Wall Street for their problems and got federal aid. Blaming these little guys who have “glamorous” easy to sell titles such as “pirate” or “terrorist” is just the age old tactic of “scapegoat”ing. Pirates, and freebie snatchers are really just free marketing and the industry knows it, especially with the comment about Blue DVD and so on, these snatchers usually spread the word prior to a movie’s release that it’s good to watch, and later they buy legal copies after seeing the crappy pirate version. Most of my friends who buy pirated version do it simply to decide if they want to watch it in the movie theaters, it’s like an appetizer to more spending. The movie industry would realize this if they were more interested in pleasing the consumer rather than just pleasing their shareholders and other self-serving entities, who don’t care about Hollywood, the consumer, or anybody.
Given the huge global box office this summer for The Avengers, The Dark Knight, The Hnger Games and even movies like Battleship that the domestic market rejected, I’d say Hollywood excels at “giving the world what it wants.”
Pirates are spoiled, self-entitled crybabies who think they deserve something for nothing. They should just be honest and stop rationalizing their behavior.
the motion picture industry missed the boat when it comes to the internet. you cannot stop the signal. the ‘costs’ of piracy are irrelevant as most people dont see it as piracy.
why pay ten bucks to watch a movie in a noisy, smelly cinema when i can download it for nothing and watch it at my own place and at my own pace?
because it’s stealing, mike. or did your parents raise you to believe it is ok to take from others so long as it is more convenient for you? following your logic, it would be ok to walk into a store, take the food you want and walk out because who wants to be inconvenienced by having to wait on a line with noisy, annoying people and then having to pay some cashier. So much easier to just take it without paying.
you’re an idiot and everything that is wrong with our society and our country.