Incentives In Movieland

The major studios are constantly beating the "movie theft" drum to ramp up more and more copyright laws, allowing them to seriously screw the fans of their products. Aside from all the fake reports, fake usage of terms like "theft", they always claim it's to "protect jobs in the industry". Really?

A while back I saw a report on how the 5th Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix actually lost money. What? This was a major studio smash, with an all star cast in a golden egg laying franchise and yet somehow it actually managed to lose money? It turns out that the only way it lost money was in the Mafia style accounting the studios use to ensure it lost money.

When you set up a system of companies, and funnel any profits between them as billable services, you ensure there's nothing left over. That's the important part. People were employed (that means agreeing to do a job in return for being paid money) to work on the movie, on condition that when it becomes profitable, they get a cut, however small of each play, purchase, rent etc.

How could they go wrong? A major studio, major worldwide franchise, it can't flop. Even luke warm reception from fans and it stands a decent chance of turning a profit pretty quickly. It's also part of a seven novel series, so there's box set sales to come later down the line adding to the initial sales. When every new movie arrives in a franchise, it triggers a fresh wave of interest in the previous movies. It also happens to be one of the best books in the series.

Yet, with all of that potential, it's still not profitable.

Movies aren't the same as the good old days right? In the 70's and 80's people had limited uses for a TV set, they couldn't watch anything on demand until the VCR without going to the movies. Later on, there were limited homes with games consoles, computers, set top boxes. Movies had to use their ingenuity to create effects, now they have CGI for everything, it's all easy, abundant, with millions of ways to get content, watch content etc So Harry Potter is a modern franchise, what about older ones? What about Star Wars?

Star Wars blasted onto the scene in 1977, with a sequel in 1981, then a 3rd movie making a trilogy and completing the story arc in 1983. All three movies have been glued into every "most successful movie of all time" top list since. Some movies have arrived to displace them a little, but they're still unbelievably successful movies in terms of influence, and (what's important for this post) revenue.

George Lucas has been reheating these movies like a madman, every so often making some changes, then another re-release to soak money from the fans wallets. With all of the versions the fans don't want, he is holding back on the versions the fans actually DO want; HD remasters of the originals, not the special editions with extra scenes.

Star Wars is a HUGE money making machine. So it's stunning to hear that David Prowse, the bloke who played the onscreen physical Darth Vader still hasn't been payed a penny for his work on the 3rd movie Return Of The Jedi. Has there been some accounting error? No, it turns out that the reason he's not been paid, is because ROTJ STILL hasn't made a profit. There are estimates that it has made close to $5bn accumulated through worldwide sales of various versions, yet on the books it's still not profitable.

What the fuck?

This begs a serious question. ROTJ is the 15th most successful movie of ALL TIME. If THAT can't make a profit, what can? The system is rigged to ensure all the money is funneled away from those actually creating the movies, back to enrich the studios and middle men. Who would want to work for them? Would you?

The studios claim to be fighting for "common men and women working in the movie industry" yet their own accounting is rigged to ensure they get screwed out of their rightful earnings. The MPAA (Movie Picture Association of America) are doing all sorts of dirty tricks to ensure a dragnet of extortion payments "for the artists" yet swallow ALL of their ill gotten gains in "administration fees" so the creative people they claim to represent get fuck all.

There is a counter culture rising up as an alternate to these parasites, called free culture. The idea is that you make content yourself, and enjoy the content created by others. You directly reward the work of people who create it. If you like a band you've found, you can donate to them directly, making sure they get a LOT more than the measly few percent the major studio gives them. There is a difference between volunteering and employment. If I volunteer my services, I don't expect to be paid. If I am employed, I do expect to be paid.

The MPAA bleat on about "thieves ruining the ability to create content" to anyone stupid enough to still listen to them. Does cheating them out of their entitled wages give them an incentive to work for you on another movie, where you'll cheat them out of their entitled wages yet again?

They claim on one hand to be losing $bn's while on the other boasting record profits. Perhaps they mean "the creative people who don't get paid for their work" are the ones losing $bn's. After all, if the system is rigged, then no movie ever makes a profit. If that's the case, why should any laws be changed to ensure they do make a profit if they can't make a product that customers want at a price they're willing to pay and make money from it?

Maybe the lesson in all of this is, if you are looking at a DVD or BluRay disc of a movie thinking "well, if I buy it, some of my money will trickle down to those who actually made it" it's time to rephrase that into "no matter whether I buy it, or illegally download it, the people who actually made it get the same amount; ie fuck all".

Maybe that's where they went wrong, they bought a bootleg dictionary. It'd explain why they constantly call "copyright infringement" "theft" and manage to rob their own employees of their dues without associating it for what it is; theft.

Perhaps it'd be an idea to finish this post on a dictionary definition of "thief": a person who steals, especially secretly or without open force; one guilty of theft or larceny.

At least with free culture the people who create the content can distribute it, share it and use it as promotion of their work. Not only does the obscenely rich Hollywood system steal from it's regular employees, it locks them out of their own work too.