steven36 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 American Sniper grossed record numbers at the U.S. box office this weekend. A surprising result, not least because a high quality leak was widely available prior to the premiere, resulting in millions of pirate downloads and streams. How can this be? When a high quality screener of American Sniper leaked online days before the theatrical release the filmmakers probably feared the worst.After all, recent history has ‘shown’ that early leaks can have a devastating impact on box office revenues. The Expendables 3, for example, grossed a disappointing $16 million during the opening weekend.At the time many insiders and experts blamed the pre-release leak for the disappointing numbers. Millions of people had downloaded pirated copies and skipped the box office, they argued.“This is really a clear situation where this had an impact. It’s hard to measure, but the ripple effect, not only of the downloads, but of the word-of-mouth that spread as a result, can be seen in the soft opening,” BoxOffice.com vice president Phil Contrino said at the time.With American Sniper things turned out quite differently though. Sure, the film was downloaded millions of times before its premiere, perhaps even more than The Expendables 3. However, all these unauthorized downloads couldn’t prevent the film from grossing record numbers.From Friday to Sunday, American Sniper grossed $90.2 million, making it the largest opening weekend in history for the December through February winter period. This means that it beats Avatar, The Hobbit trilogy and all other previous winter blockbusters.For some reason these record numbers were possible despite rampant piracy. How can that be?First of all, the impressive opening doesn’t necessarily mean that the pre-release piracy had no impact at all. Perhaps the film would have raked in an additional $5 million without piracy.On the other hand, some may argue that piracy may even have helped to promote the film through word-of-mouth advertising. In the end we simply don’t know what effect piracy had on the opening weekend.It’s telling though, that every time a film flops piracy is brought into the discussion as one of the main reasons for the disappointing results. But if records are broken, piracy isn’t mentioned at all.In other words, piracy is often a convenient scapegoat used selectively to cover up failures that probably have very little to do with illegal streams or downloads. But there’s nothing new there.Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBs Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 American Sniper grossed record numbers at the U.S. box office this weekend. A surprising result, not least because a high quality leak was widely available prior to the premiere, resulting in millions of pirate downloads and streams. How can this be?Wow, since when is 720x304 the new HD :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locoJoe Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 About this movie, hahahahahahahaha what a bunch of bull :shit: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 If Pirates were really able to stop movies from making money at the box office, there would be no more movies thus no movie Pirates. I don't think that is their sole purpose. Some of us just want to get out of the house and go do something besides sitting in front of a computer. We all need a break from time to time. That movie doesn't interest me personally but Night at the Museum was good and I went and seen it just to do something different. Two thumbs up for that movie. :)I recommend the monkey in Night at the Museum for an award! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nude Dude Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 GEEZE people get a f'en clue. if i've said it once i've said it a BILLION times. "When Music And Movie Piracy Is Up Music And Movie Sales Are Up. When Music And Movie Piracy Is Down Music And Movie Sales Are Down". in other words you can bet the real download numbers for American Sniper are some of the highest EVER. in other words the following is pure BULLS**T.the honest truth is that NO ONE wanted to see a third movie of HASBEEN actors. After all, recent history has ‘shown’ that early leaks can have a devastating impact on box office revenues. The Expendables 3, for example, grossed a disappointing $16 million during the opening weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locoJoe Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 GEEZE people get a f'en clue. if i've said it once i've said it a BILLION times. "When Music And Movie Piracy Is Up Music And Movie Sales Are Up. When Music And Movie Piracy Is Down Music And Movie Sales Are Down". in other words you can bet the real download numbers for American Sniper are some of the highest EVER. in other words the follow is pure BULLS**Tthe honest truth is that NO ONE wanted to see a third movie of HASBEEN actors. After all, recent history has ‘shown’ that early leaks can have a devastating impact on box office revenues. The Expendables 3, for example, grossed a disappointing $16 million during the opening weekend.I agree...the reason Expendables 3 did poorly at the box office had nothing to do with the leak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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