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n. hoop·la fac·tor (h  p lä f kt r)
degree of entertainment attained irrespective of critical worth |
Australian Release Dates Are we still living in the age of steamships? Cobb and Co? Carrier Pigeons? One could be forgiven for thinking that down here in Oz we still rely on such transport to deliver our films, given the time it takes for them to open here after they have already enjoyed major worldwide release.This first came to my attention when awaiting the Lord of the Rings trilogy - worldwide release generally occurred on 17-18 December, and yet we in Australia had to wait until the 26th! I guess I could accept it if the list of second rate banana republics that did get it on day one didn't include Chile, Austria and Mexico. Their box office totals for ROTK were US$3.1mil, US$9.9mil and US$15.6mil respectively. The Australian total is US$36.551mil, more than those three combined, and yet they got it on 'worldwide release day' and we waited a further 9 days. In fact, of the 39 countries listed in Box Office Mojo where ROTK opened before it did here, we outgrossed 35 of them! So what's the problem? We're clearly a big enough market - why can't we be treated as such? Many other films are delayed a lot longer than this though. Consider:
and the list goes on... It's not that we necessarily should be releasing the same day as in the US or UK. But one month later like Shrek 2, or almost two like The Chronicles of Riddick?? Who did we upset to deserve this? I can see the argument that the build-up of hype across the world could potentially increase the box office here, when we do finally open. On the other hand, pirated movies are freely available over the internet, and I wonder how many disgruntled Aussie viewers have just downloaded a copy a day after it's US release? It seems nonsensical that the film industry would encourage the pirate industry by spreading release dates so much. Does this piss anyone else off? I know a few LOTR fans who were incensed they had to wait another week after worldwide release. What about for other films? Do you download pirated copies because you can't wait for the cinema release? Let me know your thoughts. Cheers... Mark NB. Box office data from Box Office Mojo, Release Dates from IMDb. |
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