Wall Street Doom and Gloom

[zombieflanders]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

Piracy does not just affect the CEO of the company and/or the big stars who make millions. In fact, I doubt it affects their bottom line much at all. You do realize that many people make their living making these movies and distributing them to consumers right? I mean people who are just trying to get by right? How do you think they get paid? Monopoly money?

Exactly. I feel sorry that dvdman doesn't even bother to think about the hundreds of other people in the credits, let alone those that they have to support.

[bluskiessmingatme]

Originally Posted by Fettastic

Soccer moms aren't going to be ripping anything.

I remember an argument on these boards a few months back in which one person postulated that while shopping at the grocery store a mother is going to weigh getting either a DVD or a Blu-ray and decide by which would be easier to rip to another disc so the kids could have one. LOL, it was ridiculous back then, too.

[dvdman]

Originally Posted by DaveS1138

Ahhh......yet again the "Its OK because I only steal from people that have more than me." argument. I'm sure you will feel the exact same way when somebody that has less than you decides to steal from you?

It's not about saying it okay to steal from from the rich or anything like that. It's about the studios crying (again) that they are no longer seeing the profits they once saw before and looking for blame. Maybe it has nothing to do with piracy but more to do with economy or poor product. Unlike the airline industry and others they "are" still making hefty profits despite what they write.

[crazzeto]

Originally Posted by dvdman

It's not about saying it okay to steal from from the rich or anything like that. It's about the studios crying (again) that they are no longer seeing the profits they once saw before and looking for blame. Maybe it has nothing to do with piracy but more to do with economy or poor product. Unlike the airline industry and others they "are" still making hefty profits despite what they write.

Crying about it at at time when they're actually starting to lose revenue, why? Well in part due to piracy... I'm sorry, but there's no justification at all for your argument.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by crazzeto

Crying about it at at time when they're actually starting to lose revenue, why? Well in part due to piracy... I'm sorry, but there's no justification at all for your argument.

Agreed. Warner has already stated that they are cutting back on theatrical releases. Why? I think there are a number of factors at play. The overall increased cost of making movies, shrinking DVD margins, unions, etc. But you better believe that piracy is pretty high on that list as well. The thing is piracy is nothing new. Like I mentioned, piracy was pretty rampant with VHS (tape to tape recording). The Internet has just made it much easier and convenient...

[crazzeto]

Originally Posted by kamiller42

I love when people bring up exceptions as if they define the rule.

Do you know for a fact that the mother requested a geek to find a pirated copy of The Hulk, or did a geek son or daughter give it to her and say "Let's watch this!"?

dvdman,

Never let jealousy determine the right or wrong of an issue.

the problme here kamiller is this type of thing can be seen all over... This doesn't even take into account pircay "over seas"... In Peru S. America for instance it's extreamly common for people to straight up buy pirated DVD's because of the expense associated with buying new one's... Sorry, but it's false to say the only people involved with piracy are pimple faced nerds living in their mothers basements.

[Pro-bassoonist]

Whether or not this and other forums like it we are moving to a market formula where BR will likely be the only physical format and VOD will serve as a complimentary rental scheme. With the exception of a few independent distribs everyone should be rather clear on the fact that this is the direction the market is moving. The transition will also likely force quite a few to call it a day as neither volume nor profits will be able to keep them afloat if their sales were average at best to begin with.

(Good recent examples are Tartan, No Shame Films, and even independent stores such as XploitedCinema where volume simply isn't there).

Ciao,
Pro-B

[Kable]

I doubt it's just digital download that's not keeping up with DVD declines. Blu-ray hasn't filled that gap either. Looking at the Neilsen numbers, Blu has kept the same or lost market share right along side the declining DVD format this year.

The studios can only blame themselves for this. Hollywoods been pumping out mostly garbage for over a decade now.

[Pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by Kable

I doubt it's just digital download that's not keeping up with DVD declines. Blu-ray hasn't filled that gap either. Looking at the Neilsen numbers, Blu has kept the same or lost market share right along side the declining DVD format this year.

Blu-ray has not been on its own long enough to be able to offset the DVD decline.

This is one of the reasons why I desired a unified HD market, and not the much hyped on this forum "duality", the transition should be easier with more committed players and a greater variety of films. Some great announcements have been made but the faster the studios evade the current market limbo the less disappointing their revenue would be (Warner's positioning makes much sense after all).

Pro-B

[zombieflanders]

Originally Posted by Kable

I doubt it's just digital download that's not keeping up with DVD declines. Blu-ray hasn't filled that gap either.

Or, in the real world, Nielsen and NPD have been saying that's exactly what Blu-ray is doing.

Looking at the Neilsen numbers, Blu has kept the same or lost market share right along side the declining DVD format this year.

Do you even read the Nielsen thread, or are you just making up numbers from nowhere? In the real world, Blu-ray has doubled market share, and surpassed all of 2007's sales within 4 months. In year-to-year comparisons from Q1, Blu-ray grew 351%.

The studios can only blame themselves for this. Hollywoods been pumping out mostly garbage for over a decade now.

You really don't have any idea what you're talking about.

DVD has barely been out for over a decade now, yet it was the highest period of home video growth and total sales ever, particularly in the late 90s and early 2000s.

[dvdman]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

Agreed. Warner has already stated that they are cutting back on theatrical releases. Why? I think there are a number of factors at play. The overall increased cost of making movies, shrinking DVD margins, unions, etc. But you better believe that piracy is pretty high on that list as well. The thing is piracy is nothing new. Like I mentioned, piracy was pretty rampant with VHS (tape to tape recording). The Internet has just made it much easier and convenient...

Maybe they are losing money because they are spending hundreds and hundreds of millions on movies that suck and nobody is paying their hard earn money to watch or buy anymore? The studios are still taking in billions in revenue from sources (dvd, downloading, pay-per view,satellite,cable,etc.) they never had 10 years ago and yet they are still crying. Come on now you are singing to the choir here.

[crazzeto]

Originally Posted by dvdman

Maybe they are losing money because they are spending hundreds and hundreds of millions on movies that suck and nobody is paying their hard earn money to watch or buy anymore? The studios are still taking in billions in revenue from sources (dvd, downloading, pay-per view,satellite,cable,etc.) they never had 10 years and yet they still cry. Come on now you singing to the choir here.

Or maybe they're losing money because a significant number of people out there aren't paying to see movies which are well made because they're stealing them instead. I'm sorry but your argument still loses... It's just as wrong to steal a bad movie as it is to steal an excellent movie...

[dvdman]

Originally Posted by crazzeto

Or maybe they're losing money because a significant number of people out there aren't paying to see movies which are well made because they're stealing them instead. I'm sorry but your argument still loses... It's just as wrong to steal a bad movie as it is to steal an excellent movie...

You and others are assuming the lost revenue is from "pirating" and that has not been proven and considering it was happening when VHS was around.
Maybe consumers are just tired of buying the 8th version of the Rambo movies on BD,dvd,UMD or any other form of distribution. When are you people
going to realize the economy sucks? Consumers are NOT spending money on the watching movies or other entertainment. The studios need to stop looking for excuses and accept the facts.

[crazzeto]

Originally Posted by dvdman

You and others are assuming the lost revenue is from "pirating" and that has not been proven and considering it was happening when VHS was around.
Maybe consumers are just tired of buying the 8th version of the Rambo movies on BD,dvd,UMD or any other form of distribution. When are you people
going to realize the economy sucks? Consumers are NOT spending money on the watching movies or other entertainment. The studios need to stop looking for excuses and accept the facts.

Let me make this simple....

do you have a pirated movie? If yes then yes you did hurt that studio and no you didn't have the right to pirate that movie. I'm sorry but just because you bought the raiders of the lost arch VHS tape back in 1989 you don't automatically get the right to download an image of the bluray (whenever it becomes available) in lue of purchasing the disc. Why? Perhaps it's because you are infact getting something with that bluray that the VHS tape didn't have, like 1080P encodes, lossless audio, maybe PiP SF's, maybe web SF's, behind the sceens features etc....

[zombieflanders]

Originally Posted by dvdman

You and others are assuming the lost revenue is from "pirating" and that has not been proven and considering it was happening when VHS was around.

And what are you doing? Do you have firm evidence that it's not piracy? No, you're just making an assumption and shifting the blame.

Maybe consumers are just tired of buying the 8th version of the Rambo movies on BD,dvd,UMD or any other form of distribution. When are you people
going to realize the economy sucks? Consumers are NOT spending money on the watching movies or other entertainment. The studios need to stop looking for excuses and accept the facts.

Then how does that explain, for instance, the vastly more expensive (5x-10x for the consoles, 3x-5x for the games) video game market's growth in both hardware and software? Or the fact that the entertainment industry's decline not matching 1:1 with the economic problems?

Your argument here is untenable at best, and for someone who is so fired up about being so certain that studios are playing the blame game, you seem awfully quick with the pointed fingers but not providing any evidence yourself.