What the Wolverine Leak Means for the Future of Piracy
April 12, 2009 Posted in Entertainment, Movies
Twentieth-Century Fox was the butt of a big prank this April Fool’s Day, when news broke that a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked onto the net. Movies get leaked habitually, sure, but the circumstances combined to make it feel like a first: It was a DVD-quality copy. Of a massive, big-budget superhero movie. Online a full month before the movie’s release.
The bootleg spread like wildfire, and by some accounts there were over one hundred thousand downloads on the first day alone. That’s a lot of conceivable box office revenue.
It felt like a first, but it also might be a last. Because the way I experienced it, April Fool’s Day marked the end of piracy’s glory days — the day piracy stopped being casually tolerated by everyone but studio heads.
This goes beyond Fox’s you-messed-with-the-wrong-people response to the incident (they put out a statement which went something like, and I’m paraphrasing, “we’re working with the FBI to make sure whomever was responsible will spend the rest of their life worrying about dropping the soap”). And it goes beyond the firing of FoxNews.com‘s Roger Friedman, who won the Stupidest (Ex-)Columnist in the World award for writing a review of the bootleg and encouraging people to watch more movies online illegally. (Seriously, man. Twentieth-Century Fox and Fox News are sibling companies, what kind of false sense of job security did you have?)
It also goes beyond whether the movie was any good or not. I’ve read good and bad things; the majority of responses haven’t been promising, but then again, we’re talking about the internet. Do the disparagers really think watching it on a fifteen-inch screen with unfinished special effects will provide the same experience sitting in a movie theater will? No, they just like being negative.
What it really boils down to is that the online fan community itself condemned the leak. Universally.
Ain’t It Cool News, the granddaddy of online movie spoiling and fanboy bitching, ran a story called “We Don’t Want your Wolverine Movie Reviews,” explaining, “the only way you’re seeing it right now is through illegal channels, and we’re not going to condone that.”
JoBlo.com downplayed its potential effects, saying that “while there will always be a percentage of internetizens who actively seek pirated/bootleg/camera copies of movies, it’s probably safe to say that the average consumer still prefers the theater experience.”
TheBadandUgly.com said they stopped watching the bootleg after a couple minutes, in order to get the better theatrical experience: “Just because you can watch a rough-sketch and go somewhere on the internet to read the entire plot,” the article says, “does not mean you, I or anyone knows what X-Men Origins: Wolverine looks like. Because it isn’t done.”
And DarkHorizons.com summed things up by saying “It’s an act that cruelly robs thousands of people of not just months of hard effort, but their potential livelihood as well.”
That was the reigning sentiment: even if you don’t care about hurting a big studio, you’re hurting the hundreds of hardworking crew members who spent months on the project. If piracy translates into lost revenue, that’s going to translate into smaller budgets and fewer jobs.
If you really want a nail in the coffin? Even some pirates are speaking out against the leak. The New York Times ran a story called “Some Pirates Won’t Watch Illegal Wolverine”, while Gizmodo came out with a “Pirate’s Code of Conduct”, which contained gems like “save action flicks…for the big screen” and ” if you really like it and can afford to do so, buy it.”
Does this mean everyone in the world has suddenly found a stringent set of morals? That’s pretty doubtful. But the tide of public opinion has turned. And I am sure about one thing:
The fourteen-year-old who stole the copy of Wolverine from his dad’s postproduction and posted it online thinking he was cool is totally crapping his pants right now.
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WTF?!?! This is by no means the first or last movie leaked in dvd quality. 15" screen. Who watches a dvd quality release on a 15' screen? That said, the movie as a stand alone movie about some superhero isn't bad, but as a wolverine origin movie it sucked balls. Ruins the franchise. I'm so glad it was leaked and I didn't waste my hard earned money on it. This is a slap the director and producer in the mouth they fucked up so bad movie. I give credit when its do regardless of how I feel about someone personally, but I don't feel ANYONE is worth millions of dollars to do anything. That includes sports, movies hell anything.
Really? They are talking about putting people in a cage for life because of a movie? So 2 movies is the death penalty?
I'm guessing fox themselves leaked the unfinished yet dvd quality copy to get lots of coverage. Box office revenues are not being hurt by people downloading movies. The revenues are hurt (if in fact they are hurt) by the recycled crap that bombards theaters.
The people that habitually download are type that have done everything in their lives not to pay for media. You remember that guy that had to borrow the new album to tape it? Well, there are millions of people like that guy.
The media companies should compete with the pirates by making content easier to access. I would gladly pay 3 to 5 bucks for a divX version of a movie if they provided it. It's a lower quality, and I'm sure many people would follow suit if it were easy. Too bad piracy is easier for people. I purchase PC Games, and I have a horrible time to get them running, and I hear of the pirated versions run easier out of the box. This does not make sense.
The person that wrote this does not know someone that has pirated anything and he totally is against it. Having said that "If piracy translates into lost revenue, that’s going to translate into smaller budgets and fewer jobs." i have heard that before but let me ask this- does Jim Carry need 15 million a movie? Does any actor need more then 5 million a movie? I dont care what a person would say "they are the reason for people to come see it" you get a crappy editor to edit the film and see how many people show up. crappy sound? yeah that would do well for the jonas brothers movies.
The people that do the work to make the film get very little credit and not enough are paid for the skills they have.
As for the movie i have not seen it as i dont care for how they wrote the character deadpool (i was told by my friends who did it).
I do agree that the studio's need to look at themselves for the leaks as if no one leaks the film there is no piracy then (lets not talk about crappy ass cam copies for now).
The thought of "take the head and the body will fall" applies here for piracy. you can not share what you do not have.
Who cares!?!??!?!?! They studio execs will still be millionaires. We will still get ripped off at the theater.
I really enjoyed the movie, I thought the storyline was great but it was definitely not the movie theater experience whoever has written that it was clearly did not watch the movie, there was a ton of missing CGI the majority of the action scenes looked awful because of this and most of us watch action movies for the "action" that being said this movie has a ton of potential and I will definitely going to see it at the theaters when it is released.
>"April Fool’s Day marked the end of piracy’s glory days — the day piracy stopped being casually tolerated by everyone but studio heads."
So what. No matter what is done to prevent piracy, there will always be a way around it. Even if the internet is shut down, people will use sneaker net to get their fix.
Video, audio, software, etc, are so expensive that I just refuse to pay. And if somehow I was completely locked out, then I would simply do without. Nobody needs it anyway.
With movies, the quality is so grossly poor that I can't even remember when I last anticipated a movie release. And movies that I have downloaded, I fast forward thru them and watch the entire film in less than half an hour, and then I regret wasting my time in even doing that. Wolverine is complete dreck that only appeals to teenage boys, just like all the other comicbook crossovers. The superhero concept demeans us all by making the things we can do insignificant by comparison.
I'm going to convince my friend (girl) to go with me to watch it in theatre, so I can spend the 1.5 hours making out :)…I already saw the movie…Score!!
I agree in the aspect of large companies just trying to sway the publics opinion that pirates rip the industries off. First it's the movie business they make more money then most of us will ever see in our life time. Second it wasn't even a finished version that was uploaded. If some fat movie or cg buff can set and watch it and his child wants to up it the the internet for all of us to see.
"So be it, atleast his child is developing his knowledge in computers. unlike some rich dicks that can't even operate there own pc or mac."
Is that going to keep the general public from going to see it and take money out of the industries pocket.
"highly doubtable"
It boils down to this, the whole movie on the internet to download is a one and a zero in probably a thousand differant ways. We pirates will always be here. We operate your servers, webpages, and networks of your largest to smallest businesses. We write your programs and even build your computers. SO all you rich bitchers and whiners that still have problems accessing your email you think your going to catch the smart ones. Go ahead spend millions on a third part company to investigate and track down one lone person in this whole world just becuase he had a bite of your cake. BOOHOOHOO
"whatever"
You will still make your money and no I didn't download it. I'll wait for it to come out in theaters or maybe DVD. Then I might:P
Dear Michael Dance,
You immediately lose all credibility right off the bat by suggesting that X-Men Origins: Wolverine could potentially be a "good" movie. Buddy, it's a superhero movie… it's not art. Secondly, no one has a 15 inch computer monitor anymore except my great grandparents, and I think even they upgraded to a 22 inch wide screen last year. Thirdly, you claim that people who download pirated movies are immoral somehow…you live in the US right? Guess what, part of the taxes you pay goes toward killing people with weapons, so STFU about morality. Morals are as irrelevant as they are in the eye of the beholder. If you had actually passed your community college intro to philosophy class you would have known this already. Fourthly, you insanely claim that the “the tide of public opinion has turned” as if to say, “now everyone is against downloading movies” … … … I don’t even know how to respond to this absurdity except to say that you are possibly the biggest corporate tool of a “journalist” I have ever had the displeasure of reading. This explains why you write for COED Magazine, whatever the hell that is. How can you write for an online publication and be so clearly out of touch with people who use computers? How is it even possible?
I've seen it and yes it was not as good as I thought it would have been but I'm sure the finish product would be awesome.. Even though I've seen it.. I can honestly say that I'll still go to the theater.. coz its wolverine.. any dumbass would still go to the theater to watch wolverine..
My message to the folks who downloaded it.. watch it in the cinema. Its worth it.
this is such a bias article.
"online fan community itself condemned the leak. Universally."
Every site listed there gets ad revenue from movies studios so they won't risk losing it. And it's pure hypocrisy on their part seeing how they prescreen movies for free anyway.
"It was a DVD-quality copy. watching it on a fifteen-inch screen"
What does screensize matter? It's a dvd-quality copy. Most people (especially pirates) already have ways of viewing it on their bigscreen tv.
Same thing happened with the Hulk movie, dvd-quality workprint with few missing cgi leaked before opening. Nothing changed since then and nothing will change after this.
This is just another ploy by Studios to blame pirates for poor box office numbers and last ditch effort to drum up hype for the movie before it opens. No one's talking about Fast & Furious 74 million opening, but they are talking about the Wolverine Leak.
I work in the industry…making movies that is…and no, if you pirate a movie, I don't loose any money. The union makes sure I get paid every week (sometimes every two weeks). Up until I finish working on the project. i do not get royalties, and neither does catering, hair/makeup, the ADs, PAs, PMs, etc. Nope, you are just stealing money from the studios, in some cases the execs, and of course the high priced non-union actors (who can be a complete pain in the arse to work with!).
like someone posted above…pay less to the actors, and instead of a $50M budget crap cgi film, you have a $50M high quality film with hungry talent.
Watching a flick like this on a small screen would be cheating yourself out of a nice big screen experience.
Having said that, your conclusions are a bunch of baloney. People who pirate don't give a fcuk about the niceties you mention. There's no honor among thieves. Nothing's going to change. In other words: PFFFFFFT!
100,000 people is a big loss of revenue? Get real. That's barely a million. These big budget movies make hundreds of millions.
More information about this topic here: http://www.promovare-optimizare.com
Umm, DVD-Quality? Postproduction? Umm, no. How about pre-SFX workprint, not even at the 60% mark? You could still see wires! Do you even know what you are talking about?
Waldo, I like your point.
Let's be honest. Who cares about FOX threatening soap dropping? HA HA HA. I didn't even waste my bandwith on your garbage film. On top of that… let me see 100000 people get thrown in prison for a XMEN film after you make millions on it.
The plain and simple facts are..
Media companies exploit consumers by overcharging to view a pointless film! Then the movie companies re sell the same garbage you saw a few months before for 20 dollars so you can watch it once more, realize again it is garbage, and throw it on a shelf.
I dare you. Throw the american public in jail for paying for cable, cell phone, gasoline, electric, rent, heat, theater, clothing, and any other kind of expense you want to stack on top of the pile. Watch the economy continue to crumble… THEN figure out what to do.
Once we're all in jail you'll know we pay you're salaray and WE decide what to pay not YOU. We are the market.
Peace.
Frankly I think your article is nonsense. As easy as it is to spout the tired line of, "you're hurting the poor old grip, and catering companies" the truth of the matter is, if they cared about the consumer this wouldn't be happening. Netflix, as of last year, is the only company streaming movies over the internet, and consumers have proven emphatically that that's what they want, be it for music, movies, or television. There has been numerous free websites that provide this service, and they've been around for longer, and provide much better features. Problem is consumers of streamed videos have been enjoying it for free for too long and now expect it to be free. The same applies to downloading music, movies, and television episodes. So, who's to blame, the companies that refuse to look beyond their own money spinning operations, or consumers who are sick of it. If the studios had the best interests of the consumers, and not their board room, in mind they wouldn't charge showing fees to theaters, and then restrict their DVD's with region coding and encryption. They are behind the times, greedy, and flush with money. For some reason find it okay to pay actors millions of dollars, but find any excuse to deprive writers and any other worker of their wages. Who's the real victim, the people they deprive of wages, the consumers they take for idiots, or the executives that find ways to screw both of them?
This guy is a MPAA hack. Represents the movie industry, gives a sh*t about the public who actually pay to watch the movie and have little or no knowledge of technology. First off, the pirated copy could be played in HD with just a little extra knowledge (read Googling). Second, I don't care who uploaded the original content (the guy would get the punishment he deserves if the MPAA/FBI do find him) but people should understand that piracy exist for many reasons. Have you seen any decent movie lately? I would probably go to see the movie (pirated or otherwise-even if I saw a copy of it) in a theater if it's good enough. I have always supported independent movies but will always give a sh*t about these billion dollar studios who treat everybody except the actors like sh*t.