Warner Bans Canadian Promo Screenings to Battle Piracy, Cries into Giant Money Pile of Money
In an effort to thwart global movie piracy, Warner Bros. studios is cancelling all promotional screenings of their films in Canada, Variety reports.
WB researchers possibly using the same researchers who thought Lucky You, The Reaping and The Astronaut Farmer were good enough to green-light insist that more than 70 per cent of all pirated Warner titles released over the past 18 months originated in Canada. Warner also believes that Canada is the major distributor of the pirated films and not, more logically, larger countries with arguably less strict security like China, India, Mexico, Russia to name a few.
Warner Bros. hopes cancelling all promotional and word-of-mouth screenings will prompt the Canadian government to make it illegal to take cameras and other recording devices into theaters, instead of just going, "Promotional what? Huh? Whosizz?"
"Within the first week of a film's release, you can almost be certain that, somewhere out there, a Canadian copy will show up," said Darcy Antonellis, Warner Brothers senior VP of worldwide anti-piracy operations.
In 2005, the U.S. made it a felony to record films in a theater and several other countries have followed, but cinemas in Canada have not. Instead of arresting the culprits and meting out judicial punishment, Canadian theater owners can only ask them to leave.
WB Pictures Canada and Canadian theater owners (both who are "losing" money here) have been teaming-up to encourage the federal government to take action, but none has been undertaken.
This unprecedented move comes just in time for summer box office season and effects screenings of Ocean's Thirteen and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, among others. Press screenings for accredited media will continue (score!).
While Warner is the first to bravely face the menacing, snaggle-toothed giant that is Canada, it is believed other studios may follow, firming up flaccid-line countermeasures to something a little less embarrassing.
"This is an important step towards curbing piracy on a global scale," WB international president of distribution Veronika Kwan-Rubinek said, Variety reports. "Piracy is the leading issue the international film industry struggles with every day, and Canada is the first place to take action, as Canadian recorded content is distributed and viewed all over the world."
If there's one thing anyone has learned in the wild, dangerous world we call the 21st Century, movie studio executives know what they're talking about. And any big time Hollywood movie exec knows that you cant make a blockbuster without a villain. It unites the audience. Gives them something to kinda focus on between text messages, popcorn and starting fights and adds a whole award category to the MTV Movie Awards!
With the film studios allegedly only making billions of dollars instead of, uh, billions of dollars thanks to global movie piracy, they find themselves in a bit of a dilemma. Do they take on giant (but scary!) global pirate dens like Russia or China, or do they go toe-to-toe with those fuzzy, loveable Canadian pirates? The same Canadians who represent a market that is larger economically (to movie studios, at least) than those other countries? Seems like a logical choice, no?
Well played, Warner Brothers. Well played.
In an effort to thwart global movie piracy, Warner Bros. studios is cancelling all promotional screenings of their films in Canada, Variety reports.
WB researchers possibly using the same researchers who thought Lucky You, The Reaping and The Astronaut Farmer were good enough to green-light insist that more than 70 per cent of all pirated Warner titles released over the past 18 months originated in Canada. Warner also believes that Canada is the major distributor of the pirated films and not, more logically, larger countries with arguably less strict security like China, India, Mexico, Russia to name a few.
Warner Bros. hopes cancelling all promotional and word-of-mouth screenings will prompt the Canadian government to make it illegal to take cameras and other recording devices into theaters, instead of just going, "Promotional what? Huh? Whosizz?"
"Within the first week of a film's release, you can almost be certain that, somewhere out there, a Canadian copy will show up," said Darcy Antonellis, Warner Brothers senior VP of worldwide anti-piracy operations.
In 2005, the U.S. made it a felony to record films in a theater and several other countries have followed, but cinemas in Canada have not. Instead of arresting the culprits and meting out judicial punishment, Canadian theater owners can only ask them to leave.
WB Pictures Canada and Canadian theater owners (both who are "losing" money here) have been teaming-up to encourage the federal government to take action, but none has been undertaken.
This unprecedented move comes just in time for summer box office season and effects screenings of Ocean's Thirteen and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, among others. Press screenings for accredited media will continue (score!).
While Warner is the first to bravely face the menacing, snaggle-toothed giant that is Canada, it is believed other studios may follow, firming up flaccid-line countermeasures to something a little less embarrassing.
"This is an important step towards curbing piracy on a global scale," WB international president of distribution Veronika Kwan-Rubinek said, Variety reports. "Piracy is the leading issue the international film industry struggles with every day, and Canada is the first place to take action, as Canadian recorded content is distributed and viewed all over the world."
If there's one thing anyone has learned in the wild, dangerous world we call the 21st Century, movie studio executives know what they're talking about. And any big time Hollywood movie exec knows that you cant make a blockbuster without a villain. It unites the audience. Gives them something to kinda focus on between text messages, popcorn and starting fights and adds a whole award category to the MTV Movie Awards!
With the film studios allegedly only making billions of dollars instead of, uh, billions of dollars thanks to global movie piracy, they find themselves in a bit of a dilemma. Do they take on giant (but scary!) global pirate dens like Russia or China, or do they go toe-to-toe with those fuzzy, loveable Canadian pirates? The same Canadians who represent a market that is larger economically (to movie studios, at least) than those other countries? Seems like a logical choice, no?
Well played, Warner Brothers. Well played.
