Studios Continue Getting Piracy Wrong?

By now many of you have heard how The Dark Knight is shattering box office records. Almost every news story is about how much money Warner Bros. is raking in.

No story that I've seen has been about film piracy... until today.

One of the reasons I believe film piracy to be one of the most overblown "threats" out there (next to any and all warnings from Neo-Cons) is this...

...when a film tanks at the box office it was piracy that had a hand in hobbling it...

... if a film is a blockbuster, no one moans about piracy getting in the way of an even bigger opening weekend.

This must mean that piracy is only a problem for films with poor performances. At least that's what it seems to me.

Yet, Warner Bros. took extra measures to make sure piracy didn't hinder Batman.

"The film reels were delivered in staggered shipments so that a complete version was not available in theaters until the last moment.... The strategy, according to the (Los Angeles) Times, kept any print of The Dark Knight off the internet for 30 hours -- enough time to allow it to break box-office records in its first weekend."

Umm, really? Here's another misconception about film piracy. People who are going to download a film from the internet, a process that could take up to 24 hours depending upon your connection, WERE NEVER GOING TO THE THEATER IN THE FIRST PLACE. A 30 hour delay is only going to put off their downloading... not make them pony up to see it in the theater.

Dark Knight was an event film. Sure there are illegal copies on line and on poor quality Hong Kong DVDs, but I'm willing to bet these measures by WB didn't hinder these illegal transactions. Nor would they have effected Dark Knight's bottom line in any significant way. Dark Knight made all the money it was supposed to and rightfully so (It's a kick ass film!).

Still, I guess if you publicly behave like there's a threat... then the threat must be real.