Are Video Stores Doomed Now You Can Get Movies Online?
When a London company announced several years ago that it was offering the first legal service to Watch Vampires Suck Movie Free Online, video store owners around the world began worrying about their future.
Why, after all, would customers leave the comfort of their home to wander through a store to study video covers when anybody can do the same thing at their home keyboard? Why go out into the rain or snow or summer’s heat when everything’s available — legally — at the click of a mouse?
Legal movie downloading companies say they are aiming for the very customer who frequents the corner video store. Indeed, VHS and DVD rental is a massive market worldwide. Movie marketers today schedule not only the first-run release of each new movie these days, but also when it will be released in second-run theaters, then how and when it will hit foreign cinemas, then when the film will become available on DVD and when it will go to HBO, Starz, Showtime and other cable outlets. Now stir in one more possibility — home download release. What once was illegal has become a viable marketplace.
Just a few months ago, somebody sitting at their home computer uploaded a high-quality copy of a newly released film onto a certain illegal person-to-person file-sharing network. Within weeks, that one file had been downloaded by 30,408 people on six continents. Dozens of other illegal copies of the movie found their way onto the hard drives of many thousands more.
Does online piracy endanger Hollywood? Of course money is being lost. But Hollywood has learned to study the pirates. Their successes actually signal untapped marketing opportunities. Not so very long ago, Hollywood resisted the development of VHS and DVD marketing. The studios feared that home movies would negatively impact box-office receipts. However, the home viewing market has expanded markets for moviemakers. Today, many films never make it to a theater. They go directly to DVD. Have you ever heard of YouTube? With its new popularity, suddenly anybody can be a filmmaker — sharing their latest video creation or propaganda attempt or religious inspiration or hilarious home video with millions of people worldwide in a matter of hours.
Yet does online piracy really endanger Hollywood? A very good case can be made that pirates fill a gap overseas where legitimate markets are heavily restricted by repressive regimes — such as in the Islamic Republic of Iran where every movie must be approved by the religious morals police. The People’s Republic of China sets quotas of the number of movies allowed into the country — and frequently blocks any film that is critical of China’s dictatorial leaders. So a case could be made that Iranian and Chinese pirates are actually busting their government’s blockade on “dangerous” ideas such as freedom of speech or the right to elect one’s own leaders.
Pirate successes are worth careful study. They do point to untapped opportunity. Not so many years ago, Hollywood actually fought the idea of marketing videotaped movies. The big studios feared that people would stay at home rather than go to their local cinema. They were wrong, however. Home viewing has expanded Hollywood’s reach. Today many new releases are never screened at a theater, but instead go directly to home video.
Studios will be smart to continue embracing technologies that empower the public to Watch Vampires Suck Movie Online Free sitting in their easy chair, barefoot and in their pajamas — without ever leaving home.
Movies are one of the best forms of entertainment we have, and as long as Hollywood keeps making new ones, we will keep looking for full movie downloads.
