You often here representatives of the big movie companies say that piracy is bad and that leaking movies to torrent sites hurts profits. To some extent I have to say that the big movie companies are right. The movie will lose a lot of money as long as it is a bad one. If you make a good movie and it leaks to torrent sites, it doesn’t really matter because people will still want to see it. Not to mention they will buy all the related merchandise.
Star Trek is proof of that. According to TorrentFreak, site that specializes in everything torrent-related, the most pirated movie of 2009 was Star Trek. Even though Paramount Pictures used this movie as an example on how online piracy will devastate Hollywood, Star Trek managed to bring in a profit of about $100 million.
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According to The Numbers.com, Paramount spent $140 mil to make the movie and about $100 mil to promote it. The movie brought in $385 million at the box office, $30 mil from US TV syndication rights, and more than $100 mil from DVD and Blu Ray sales (anticipated, based on sales and rentals since Nov. 2009). Film Industry Analyst Bruce Nash, who knows about these things, took a close look at the numbers and assessed that “the most pirated movie of 2009” made a profit of about $100 mil.
“This is just one data point suggesting that Hollywood's hue and cry about "Internet piracy" should be taken with a grain of salt. Other data points include Hollywood's record breaking box office results for 2009 (in the midst of a recession!). And the fact that twice as many movies were released in 2009, as compared to 2004. (There is also far more new music being released today than 10 years ago, thanks to new digital technologies.) Yes, there are lots of unauthorized copies being made out there. But despite what Hollywood's spokesmen would have us believe, the sky is not falling. In fact, many industries would happily trade places with the major Hollywood movie studios,” commented Fred von Lohmann, Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation who specializes in intellectual property matters.
You often here representatives of the big movie companies say that piracy is bad and that leaking movies to torrent sites hurts profits. To some extent I have to say that the big movie companies are right. The movie will lose a lot of money as long as it is a bad one. If you make a good movie and it leaks to torrent sites, it doesn’t really matter because people will still want to see it. Not to mention they will buy all the related merchandise. 