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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

The 'Scene' by Seymore Flix

Expendables: Pirates vs Geezers


And the winner is ...... Gating only $16.2 million on its big-screen debut, Expendables 3 was a box office bummer. Ironically, the film's dismal admission figures were partly due to the over 5.2 million pirated viewings of the film. According to Excipio, the movie piracy tracking firm, a high-quality copy of the film hit torrent-sharing sites more than three weeks prior to its U.S. theatrical release.

Expendables 3, had a stellar cast.  Not only starring Sly Stallone, but featuring Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Antonio Banderas, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, and 27 less renowned actors. Because of the piracy issue it is impossible to know how the movie would have fared at the box office. However, a recent study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University estimates that films subject to pre-release piracy generate a 20-25% lower box office take compared with those pirated after their theatrical release.

"There certainly are people who watched the pirated copies of Expendables who weren't going to see it anyway", Michael Smith, professor of information technology and marketing at CMU, told me. "But the real fans are the ones who rush out on opening weekend, and what's harmful is when it's available on pirate sites before there is a legal channel to see it. You're asking people to not only not see a pirated copy, but to wait a few weeks." And that, as they say in flixdom, 'don't work'.

Another factor was that the film got negative reviews because critics and viewers alike stated it was a watered-down version of the two previous 'Expendable' movies. There had been a decision by the producers to go with a milder version which hopefully would attract a larger audience - it did the opposite. The first two films were fast-paced, action-packed, graphic, 'R' rated films which were also humorously entertaining, and self-effacing.

Well, folks.  Chalk one up for the pirates and a dismal loss for the 'Expendable' geezers.

S. Flix  

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