American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

News reports are that it's all over the net and bootleg dvds are already on the street.

I wonder how much, if at all, this hurts a movie's business?

On the one hand this is an eagerly anticipated 100m movie with two of the biggest starts in the business so a lot of people are going to get their hands on a high quality rip this asap. Moreover, this is kind of a 'street cred' movie, and a lot of the demographic will love the opportunity to brag about having seen it first, for free.

On the other hand, a lot of people still are weary/ignorant/barred from p2p apps and in the end people need something to do on the weekend, and going to the movies is near the top.

Do you think this will significantly affect the movie's box office take? If the movie turns out to be really good, could it help?

Fwiw, here's what the DVD rip that's out looks like, the sound is on, it's not a bootleg, nor is it a pristine DVD rip but it is more than watchable:
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/7575/albumfk2.jpg

"I reckon Martin Scorsese is sitting somewhere in an office in New York and he sees [the title] American Gangster and he's like, '[censored]! And I went with Casino?'" —Russell Crowe

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

irony

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

I watched this a few days ago. I just thought we weren't supposed to discuss this sort of thing here.

The quality is excellent. The movie itself is decent, not great.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

I'm sure it makes an impact, but likely not a very large one. Most people aren't aware of how to go about actually dl'ing the movie even if they find out it's online.

I'd be pretty surprised if this thread doesn't get locked though.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

I could hardly imagine this hurting them much for the reasons Klompy said. I don't even want to try to download it because it seems like a good movie for the theaters.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

Instead of making 200 MM, I estimate it will now only make 199.8 MM.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

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I watched this a few days ago. I just thought we weren't supposed to discuss this sort of thing here.

The quality is excellent. The movie itself is decent, not great.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had a feeling it would be like this - movies with fantastic trailers are always disappointing.

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Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

A throwback from olden days internet I think. Nowadays it's a misnomer for petabytes of movies, porn, tv shows, etc, and not just the new [censored] (I found Rambo 2 on there the other day, downloaded it ldo). Depending on your internet link, the dl is gross fast; I cap at 800k/sec steady with cable modem.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

[ QUOTE ]
News reports are that it's all over the net and bootleg dvds are already on the street.

I wonder how much, if at all, this hurts a movie's business?

On the one hand this is an eagerly anticipated 100m movie with two of the biggest starts in the business so a lot of people are going to get their hands on a high quality rip this asap. Moreover, this is kind of a 'street cred' movie, and a lot of the demographic will love the opportunity to brag about having seen it first, for free.

On the other hand, a lot of people still are weary/ignorant/barred from p2p apps and in the end people need something to do on the weekend, and going to the movies is near the top.

Do you think this will significantly affect the movie's box office take? If the movie turns out to be really good, could it help?

Fwiw, here's what the DVD rip that's out looks like, the sound is on, it's not a bootleg, nor is it a pristine DVD rip but it is more than watchable:
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/7575/albumfk2.jpg

"I reckon Martin Scorsese is sitting somewhere in an office in New York and he sees [the title] American Gangster and he's like, '[censored]! And I went with Casino?'" —Russell Crowe

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It won't hurt it that much. The copies are really bad and pirating is just part of the game nowadays.

The film is really really good. Plus the RZA is in it so u can't go wrong there. The leaked dvd is a academy award screener.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

not that many ppl in the whole scheme of things download movies.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

I would also think that if it leaked before the movie was actually out, then you might get good quality, but maybe not.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure it makes an impact, but likely not a very large one. Most people aren't aware of how to go about actually dl'ing the movie even if they find out it's online.

I'd be pretty surprised if this thread doesn't get locked though.

[/ QUOTE ]

yesterday i watched a streaming video of it which is legal to do. i fast forward through it at 10 second clips so i missed some of it, but it seemed to be such a good movie that i'm going to go out of my way to see it at the theatre.

i think that the small minority of people who do this are going to actually help the movie tremendously through word of mouth advertising.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

Isn't pretty much every movie leaked before release? Why would it affect this movie more than any other movie?

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

The bigger problem is people making money selling these pirated DVDs. You should see how many shops sell these things here in Toronto. My inlaws are always buying these at 5 bucks a piece, where they'd otherwise have no access or knowledge of getting it from the Internet.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

Piracy for profit is a big no-no in my eyes.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

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Piracy for profit is a big no-no in my eyes.

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What makes piracy for profit no good, but piracy for personal use acceptable? I guess I don't see the difference from the movie company's perspective.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

Piracy for personal use isn't taking someone else's work and profiting off of it.

I've never ever advocated turning piracy into a profit making venture.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

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Piracy for profit is a big no-no in my eyes.

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What makes piracy for profit no good, but piracy for personal use acceptable? I guess I don't see the difference from the movie company's perspective.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? Wow.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

please stop hinting at where to download pirate movies. the rules are very simple guys.

leaky eye got a 2 day ban for posting that link.

next one to be a retard gets perm banned

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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Piracy for profit is a big no-no in my eyes.

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What makes piracy for profit no good, but piracy for personal use acceptable? I guess I don't see the difference from the movie company's perspective.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? Wow.

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I notice that both you and kipin aren't exactly spelling out your arguments here.

If I'm pirating something and passing it off to the consumer as legitimate, then it's possible that I'm now stealing additional customers beyond myself that would have willingly paid the original vendor full price and would not have pirated it themselves. This assumes that I'm selling it at full price, which seems highly unlikely, or that I'm even trying to pass it off as legitimate, which I think most customers see through. I suspect this is a pretty small effect, and certainly not morally vastly different from hosting it on a peer to peer network so that any may enjoy it for free.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

In one instance I am enjoying the movie for free, and sharing with other people who are also enjoying the movie for free.

In the other instance I am taking the movie, printing it on my own DVD's and then selling them for profit, although at a less than Hollywood price. In some sense I am reducing transaction costs for piracy by allowing people who have no technical know how get it on the action. But I am making a profit off of someone else's work which is something I would never agree with.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

[ QUOTE ]
Isn't pretty much every movie leaked before release? Why would it affect this movie more than any other movie?

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Most movies aren't released on the internet before they even show in the theater. Most of the time it takes a couple days after they're out in theaters before a cam shows up online. The release of quality downloads varies a lot from movie to movie, but it's usually ~ 2 months before the actual dvd release date.

This one will make a bigger impact then most because a quality version (or so I hear, haven't watched it yet) has been leaked before it's even in the theaters, but the impact will still be small.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

I downloaded it like 3 days ago and its pretty much perfect quality. No movies get released with a dvd rip quality before theyre even in the theaters. It normally gets leaked a month before it gets released on dvd.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Piracy for profit is a big no-no in my eyes.

[/ QUOTE ]

What makes piracy for profit no good, but piracy for personal use acceptable? I guess I don't see the difference from the movie company's perspective.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? Wow.

[/ QUOTE ]

In the pre-internet days, the media companies couldn't care less about non-profit pirating, because it's only one sale. Pirating for profit involved lots more distribution.

In the days of the internet, "non-profit" pirating can still mean widescale distribution. In fact, in some ways it's even worse for the media companies because the purchaser no longer has to pay for a product. (E.g., if the choice is between a $5 poor quality bootleg and a $9 movie ticket, the higher quality may make some choose the movie ticket. But if the choice is between free bootleg and a $9 movie ticket, the choice becomes different).

So obviously, both are bad from the perspective of the media companies.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

[ QUOTE ]

Most movies aren't released on the internet before they even show in the theater. Most of the time it takes a couple days after they're out in theaters before a cam shows up online. The release of quality downloads varies a lot from movie to movie, but it's usually ~ 2 months before the actual dvd release date.

This one will make a bigger impact then most because a quality version (or so I hear, haven't watched it yet) has been leaked before it's even in the theaters, but the impact will still be small.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, incidents like this are definately a bigger problem for the movie producers than some crappy cam release with spanish subtitels on the screen, people caughing into the microphone, heads moving around in front of the camera, etc turning up a couple days after the release (at which point the big productions usually have made a big chunk of their money already anyway).

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

Its not going to have much of an effect. Whats going to be annoying tho is that if it doesnt do huge numbers at the box office they'll just blame it on the fact it was downloadable early. Hell it could smash all the records and theyd still prolly claim it hurt sales.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

From my previous experience from downloading screeners, there are many differences (notable ones too. Mostly scene deletion) that just make the movie version that much better (better editing, too). I was tempted but decided against it.

Also, very bitter in missing the sneak peak on campus. [censored]

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

Good movie.

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The movie is just good, not outstanding. It's weird because Denzel's acting is just as good as always.

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If someone can host a good quality version for me so I can dl it, I'll ship you $25 on ftp. Pm me tho. obv dont post here.

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The first half of it is what I would consider great. It's a little anti-climatic, but I guess that's how Frank Lucas's life actually ended up going.

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thanks to this thread, i watched it last night (my buddy had already dl'ed it, and this thread made me call him)..

pretty good movie, obnoxiously long. in my drunken late night state, i had it at about 3:15 or so?? didn't lose my attention though..

'there's a difference between quitting while you're ahead, and quitting...'

awesome quote.

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eh bootlegs always ruin it for me, it's never as good as it is in theatres/on tv. I saw 40 year old virgin for the first time on a bootleg and I thought it sucked when I was watching it.

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eh bootlegs always ruin it for me, it's never as good as it is in theatres/on tv. I saw 40 year old virgin for the first time on a bootleg and I thought it sucked when I was watching it.

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Theatre, sure...but how is it different then on a TV?

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

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I downloaded it like 3 days ago and its pretty much perfect quality. No movies get released with a dvd rip quality before theyre even in the theaters. It normally gets leaked a month before it gets released on dvd.

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For anyone that cares, this is wrong. Right now is getting into some of the best time to pirate movies because monvies that come out in theaters are also instantly put on DVD to send to award voters to watch. Although it's extremely illegal and someone got busted for big bucks a few years ago (I believe it was for one of the LOTR movies), they always end up online.

Over the next 2 months or so, you'll see DVD quality rips of mostly every movie the same time it's hitting theaters... and sometimes, like American Gangster, even before.

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release *DELETED*
 

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eh bootlegs always ruin it for me, it's never as good as it is in theatres/on tv. I saw 40 year old virgin for the first time on a bootleg and I thought it sucked when I was watching it.

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you suck at warez?

Also, what he said ^^^ (about award DVD's)

Re: American Gangster leaked online one week before release
 

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For anyone that cares, this is wrong. Right now is getting into some of the best time to pirate movies because monvies that come out in theaters are also instantly put on DVD to send to award voters to watch. Although it's extremely illegal and someone got busted for big bucks a few years ago (I believe it was for one of the LOTR movies), they always end up online.

[/ QUOTE ] Ok sorry. Up until this movie for the past 3 years no movies have been released with a dvd rip quality before it was in theatres or even a month after it was in theaters. Most are released a month before the DVD is released. Whether this trend changes, it may, but as of right now thats how its been untl American Gangster.