Our film Michael Jackson’s This Is It opens almost everywhere in the world tomorrow. With millions of Jackson fans on every continent, it wouldn’t make sense to do otherwise.
But there’s another reason why simultaneous worldwide releases of big movies make sense: piracy. If Sony released it only in the US on Wednesday, by late Thursday it would be camcorded, uploaded on to the internet and available free to anyone with a broadband connection.
Unfortunately “day-and-date” releasing doesn’t solve the problem of piracy. Many “art house” or independent films cannot afford to open globally. They have to start in just a few cinemas in one nation. 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.
Online theft siphons billions of dollars out of the marketplace. That means less money to make movies. Projects get scaled back and others dropped. Some potential blockbusters won’t get made. Some new writers, actors and film-makers won’t get discovered. Last year the leading Hollywood studios made 162 films — more than 40 fewer than 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. 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.
The damage is not confined to Hollywood. The UK Film Council reports that in this century eight of the top twenty films were based on stories and characters created by writers living in Britain. More than half of the top 200 films since 2001 have featured British actors in significant roles. So when Hollywood has to trim its sails, the effect is felt in the UK too. I understand that a few long-established screen stars don’t want to be seen “dissing” a young and vocal minority of their fan base by speaking out against piracy; but they are not being compassionate to those talented artists who want to follow in their footsteps.
There is evidence that concerted action to stop the theft of intellectual property can boost the creation of entertainment. A report by Oxford Economics reveals that combating audio-visual piracy could add more than £600 million to the UK economy, creating nearly 8,000 jobs and providing £155 million in taxes.
I know that to beat the pirates we must give audiences fast, easy, affordable and legal access to the movies that we produce. The film industry has to change quickly, and we are working hard to do that. But to build the kind of marketplace that allows us to innovate and take advantage of the opportunities that digital distribution opens, we need help from those who make and enforce intellectual property laws.
I’m not talking about state-imposed preservation of the status quo but I do support proposals that target people who persistently upload content for illegal file sharing, so that they can be warned by their ISP to stop, or face temporary suspension of their account. I don’t believe this will affect those who have shared files without knowing it was wrong, as they will have many opportunities to change their ways, without penalty.
The way things work now means that pirates can steal almost at will, with little consequence to themselves, but great consequence to an industry that brings a lot of enjoyment — and employment — to so many people around the world.
Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment.