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A bizarre link between piracy and cinema-going has been uncovered, only it’s not what you’d expect. The closure of piracy portal Megaupload coincided with a slight fall in cinema attendance, as the critical word-of-mouth internet recommendation engine faltered.
The data comes from the Munich School of Management and Copenhagen Business School, which published a report into links between the closure of Megaupload at the start of the year and cinema visitor numbers.
If found that the drop in cinema visits, while very tiny, had the strongest effect on smaller movie titles, the sort that rely more on word-of-mouth to spread the message than massive marketing budgets. The report’s writers believe this could be due to a lack of social network chit-chat and anecdotal reviews from pirates, who can actually help get word out about films most people wouldn’t ordinarily take a punt on seeing. [TorrentFreak]
Image credit: Cinemas from Shutterstock
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Interesting – because of course we all know that ALL piracy stopped the moment Megaupload was shut down don’t we? I mean it wasn’t like the same movies weren’t available through a myriad other outlets. If you ask me it has never been easier to watch or download pirated movies than it is now, but no one did ask me, they wasted time and resources on a dumb report instead.
What i find really interesting is that anybody goes to the cinema at all these days. All that money spent on huge tv’s, surround sound systems and HD players combined with that monthly subscription to cable/satellite to add another 300 odd channels to the existing 70, along with online streaming services and people are still that hard up for something to watch? So much so they will endure long queues, uncomfortable seats, other people who likely smell and have a tickly cough, high ticket and snack prices and no pause function for toilet breaks just to see a movie a few months before it appears on tv!
A fool and their money…
You forgot about the big fuck off screen and sound.
apart from the fact that i mentioned most people have paid big to have those very things in their homes already?
Well many people I know can’t fit a screen closer to 1000 inches into their homes. It’s fine for you to prefer your own set up and environment over a public setting. But it really isn’t hard to imagine why some still prefer to go to the cinema to watch some films.
Ridiculous. The first BitTorrent search engines debuted in 2004. US Home video sales (DVD, BluRay, PayTV, VOD, Streaming) are down 25% to $18.5B in 2011 from $25B in 2006.
Recorded music is down worldwide from $27B in 1999 (Napster) to $15B in 2011. Video Game revenue (consoles & PC) is down 13% from 2007. All of these industries grew for decades prior to p2p.
Erm, recession much?