Big shot movie studio Sony Pictures (Spider-Man, Zombieland, District 9), who just had a record-breaking box office summer, says they cannot make any more movies because of movie piracy from BitTorrents and peer-to-peer networks.
This disclosure is brought on by Sony’s plans to release the upcoming film “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” in every country tomorrow. The company said that–based on the multitudes of Jackson fans–it wouldn’t make sense to distribute the film any differently. However, piracy has deeply worried them.
According to Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, smaller movie companies that generate independent films cannot afford to open globally. “When such movies are stolen, it hurts their chances of building an international audience–robbing film-makers of entire markets where stolen versions of their work have proliferated online.”
When translated, it basically states that online movie piracy has siphoned billions of dollars out of the industry and as a direct result, there’s less money to make movies. Lynton even threw in a few numbers, indicating that top movie studios made 162 films: over 40 less than the number filmed in 2006, and the lowest number in a decade.
“Making a movie takes lots of money and years of effort, and always involves a huge amount of risk,” he said. “Film-makers are making a big bet that the story they are telling will appeal to large audiences two or three years down the road. That comes with the territory, but rampant piracy is an additional risk that we shouldn’t have to absorb.”
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