I mainly meant those who won’t complain (to people who matter, like the management and the studios).
I’ll admit that I don’t always complain or ask for my money back either, but I do try to at least express my displeasure as often as possible. Very politely, I might add. Generally the management of the theater don’t like them either (it’s not their doing, it’s the fucking movie studios) and will understand the complaints, but they can either report back that they heard from someone who complained, or that nobody complained so nobody must notice or care. I notice, and I care, and I usually try to say something.
It depends on various factors. I’ve walked out (and if I do I ask for my money back), and I’ve waited until it was over (in which case I don’t ask for my money back), but as I said above, at least the management can report that someone complained.
I ALWAYS notice the dots. Always. I noticed them the first time I ever saw them (which makes me quite amused that people are just now noticing them when they’ve been around for years). They’ve always been very distracting to me and take me out of the movie, but I will say that they’re getting much better at hiding them (which makes me quite amused that people are noticing them NOW when they were much more jarring and blatant even just a couple of years ago).
Anyway, thank goodness for indie and foreign films, because in general (there are exceptions) the filmmakers won’t put up with that kind of crap marring their films.
Reel change marks were a necessary evil. These crap codes are just evil.
That crap is why I buy pirated discs. Fuck, I can pay my friend with a decent computer and a netflix acct 2 $ a film and keep it. Or I can pay 4.50-5.00 at blockbuster or the like to watch it once and return the fucker. It just isn’t worth it anymore. Until Hollywood starts producing worthwhile cinema I don’t see any reason to funnel more money than necessary into them.
Hollywood needs to wake the fuck up and realize that they’re losing money not because of piracy, but because their product is inferior. People are pirating because they’ve lost complete respect for the medium. Didn’t movies used to be an art form? People are starved for serious movies. What’s the most common critique for today’s big budget films? Ask ten people coming out of the theater and they’ll all say, “The special effects were cool, but the story sucked.” And yet the studios have somehow divined that audiences are demanding film after film of dumb stoner comedies and teen slashers. You know it’s getting bad when fucking video games provide a better cinematic experience than movies.
I must confess I have never seen one of the anti-piracy dots. All the rationales can’t change the fact that piracy is stealing. If people weren’t stealing their product, Hollywood execs wouldn’t have thought to put the dots in. If you steal movies and don’t like the dots, blame yourselves.
The dots are specific to each print. When a pirated copy appears, they can find where it was recorded. When a pattern emerges, like a certain theatre is always having films recorded there, the MPAA will hire the extra security to patroll that theatre. While this does not result in many arrests, it does make it more difficult for the pirates. Basically, they get chased from theatre to theatre.
I see the dots, not everyone does. If I’m into the movie it doens’t bother me.
It’s us law-abiding folks that have shelled out close to ten bucks a head to see a first-run movie at a theater that are screaming our heads off over the blinking and flashing dots that have been added to the movies.
If the MPAA has a way to scan through a pirated DVD or tape to read the dots and tell where the print came from, you can bet the pirates have the same ability to scan through and eradicate them so they can enjoy the movie as it was meant to be - without dots flashing on the screen.
I hate to admit it, but I’m guilty of this. Transformers had a terrible plot with piss-poor acting, but I still paid to see it twice just because of BIG AWESOME FIGHTING CGI ROBOTS!!! I knew I’d never be able to capture that big-screen feel again once the movie hit DVD.
Heck, the only thing a theater has going for it anymore is the big screen factor. I can see a drama/talk filled movie at home without losing anything, but for the good CGI action nothing beats the big screen.
The whole content industry needs to re-think its business modell.
I’m not sure if it works the same everywhere, but here in Sweden, theatre owners make less per ticket sold, the more tickets they sell. I bet it’s the same in the U.S. since it’s the American companies that push for this. So for a small art hous indie flick, the theatre might get a buck from every ticket sold. But if the crowds start turning up, the cut for the theatre goes down, so maybe the theatre is making a nickel or a dime per ticket for movies like LotR and Titanic.
Their profit is in popcorn and soft drinks, i.e. they never make any money from the ticket sales alone, so getting big crowds is good, since the popcorn sales will go up*.
The theatre run is basically a big sales event for when the movie company is going to make money. Get a big hit in the hteatres and create a buzz and the movie will sell better when released on DVD, Hollywood can charge more when they sell their packages to the premium cable channels, and later to the basic cabel channels, and then to ardinary tv untill finally, it gets re-packaged with another movie or two for some “special” box set. Hollywood survives on selling the same thing over and over again.
I have a friend who has a small but thriving software company. He’s selling the software at cost, not even making it available on discs, just through an ftp server. The (very good) money he makes comes from selling support packaeges to companies that buy his software. I’m not sure how this can be applied to the movie and music industries, but that’s why I say they have to find a new business modell to make money from the content.
Some of the most interesting storytelling in a visual media is being done on tv. Teh stakes are not as high, financing doesn’t come from sales per se. I read an interview with someone from HBO who said that they’re happy to take chances, because their subscribers have paid for the content and with some of the money they make, they can try to look for something new that might become big - or not. Probably the best story to come along since… oh, the 70’s, is The Wire. It makes all edgy indie movies, all Euro art house masturbation pale in comparison. It’s literature made visual.
I don’t think most people aren’t willing to pay for good stuff. The problem is the form it’s being made available to the public. Let someone freely download X GB of video files and Y MB of audio files through some sybscription service, and I think a lot of people would sign up.
Local distributers can really fuck things up. **Buffy ** never got aired here in a decent way, House M.D. started rolling its first season about six months ago, **Heroes ** started with 1.1. tonight. **Dexter ** has aired yet, neither has The Wire, apart from S.1, **Eureka ** hasn’t been picked up yet, Doctor Who has only aired the Ecclestone episodes… I can go on forever, but the thing is - one of the largest sites for distributing copyrighted material made for tv is based here in Sweden. I can download the latest episode of Eureka in about seven minutes and watch it, without commercialc, the morning after it was aired in the U.S.
Why would I want to wait for a local station to pick it up and start airing it?
Some shows are even available before their first airing on the original network in the U.S. I had seen the first four episodes of 24, season six, before they aired in the U.S.
*Paging someone with insight into business practices for theatres in other countries
