American Gangster leaked online one week before release

[ardubz]

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.

[CharlieDontSurf]

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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:


"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.

[Rootabager]

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

[Rootabager]

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

[Arnold_O]

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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.

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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.

[gusmahler]

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

[Benal]

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.

[kipin]

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

[gumpzilla]

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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.

[kipin]

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.