I know since I wrote up that article on piracy I’ve been talking about it a little more than usual. Today though, I have a hot little story for you. It seems Lions Gate Films President Tom Ortenberg just doesn’t care about pre-release piracy. Recently, a workprint of “Hostel: Part II” was stolen and thrown up on Bit Torrent sites. This is a big deal, as workprint copies of movies are very early studio releases for internal use only. You do the math of how serious this is.
So why didn’t Tom Ortenberg care about his workprint being stolen and leaked? Now everyone will see “Hostel: Part II” before the theaters – or will they? See, workprint copies of films are missing scenes, overdubs, special FX, and plenty of other things that make a movie a movie. The copy of Hostel that was stolen was in “rough, unfinished form”, thus not the final version that will appear in theaters.
It may impact the release of the film on a miniscule level, but Ortenberg doubts it. No financial impact, nothing. Looks like some movie studios understand how piracy works and realize that at times, it won’t always hurt your films.
Movie Chief: Pre-Release Piracy Makes No Impact on Box Office [TorrentFreak]