by
Doug Aamoth
on
November 7, 2007
In China, if you want to buy a legitimate DVD of a movie made by Paramount or Warner Brothers, it’ll soon cost you only $3 and will be available two weeks after the movie’s theatrical release.
That being said, $3 is “more than double the typical price for illicit street copies of the same movies,” according to Ars Technica. And pirates don’t have much incentive to abide by the two-week rule. Still, Ars points out (and I agree) that $3 is better than $0, which is what the studios are effectively making now. Plus, you’d think that the legal DVDs would be higher quality and maybe include some extras not found on the street corner versions.
Paramount and Warner Bros. market $3 DVDs in China [Ars Technica]
Comments
They make their money on us here in the USA and lose it over in China. Sue single mothers here in the USA, practically cave to China. Sounds fair. Hmmm.
Didn’t they try that in Russia as well with all the R5 versions of movies? As far as I can tell the only thing it accomplished was that nice quality versions of new movies make it onto the internet faster. Somebody always looses somewhere. As long as it’s them and not me I’m fine with that ;-)
Pirates are just going to have to sell their stuff for cheaper. Oh wait, it doesn’t get cheaper than free… or does it?
Soon China is going to be PAYING us to take and watch their pirated movies!
So uhhh I just got back from China a few weeks ago and it ummm DVDs (the pirates at least) are less than $1. Not to mention the quality (packaging, etc.) of these things are on par with the legal stuff here in the US. That being mentioned this issue is a bit more complex than what we are making it out to be. For one the film industry makes upwards of 40% of its renue overseas.
In 2000, three US films released accounted for 70% of film revenues in China. the remaining 30% was made up over 100 local Chinese films. This does not discount that bootleg DVDs is a de defacto point of sale for many Chinese consumers. To learn more about the Entertainment industries in China check out my blog http://pswhittingham.blogspot.com
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