Recently John posted about Warner Brothers cutting out advanced screenings for Canada. Those of us who don’t rely on our toes to count past ten can see that Canada is just getting punished for a crime they refuse to admit is not directly our problem, but the cold stares of studio execs continue.
And in news of the “well it can’t hurt” variety, IMDB news says:
Responding to growing complaints from Hollywood studios, the Canadian government is planning to introduce legislation within the next month that would making camcording movies in theaters illegal, the Canadian news agency CanWest News Service reported today (Friday). The report follows by days an announcement by Warner Bros. that it has canceled all preview screenings in the country out of concern over piracy. However, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist told today’s Ottawa Citizen that he is doubtful about the movie industry’s claims that Canada is a major source of bootleg product. “We’ve never had any sort of independent, verifiable data to support that,” he said. In fact, Geist said, the notion that new laws against camcording will solve the problem “is completely undermined by the experience in the United States, where there are laws, but the U.S. is the largest source of camcorded movies.”
So we pass a silly law that makes it illegal (instead of simply enforcable policy already excercized by theater staff) to bring a camera in with you. And WB will celebrate in ritual sacrifice claiming their efforts were a success in affecting Canadian law.
It seems to me however, that if ONLY the Brothers Warner are restricting these advanced screenings are they not only hurting themselves?
We have a rule of thumb here at TMB that suggests films that have no advanced screenings are movies the studio knows will be poorly recieved and therefore want to avoid the inevitable slamming the critics give it before the general public makes plans to go see the movie. (We are not the first to see this trend) Not to say that WB movies will all be considered crap because of lack of screenings, but will they suffer because of the lack of POSITIVE reviews by Canadian sources, that Canadians trust that they might have otherwise gained as the result of these screenings?
Do they consider the Canadian audience that expendable that if we go see a non-WB movie (due to a good review or positive buzz that we DID read from a Canadian source) that they do not care? Perhaps they figure we will still dish out the same buzz from US sources instead? Are they honestly ignorant enough to think we only read US sources?
All I see is WB losing a potential market that the other studios will continue to enjoy while puffing up their chests trying to bully the scapegoat target of choice.
I wonder if this will be enough to curb the maniacal finger pointing of the MPAA and return advanced screenings to Canada.
