kitty
11-17-2003, 09:14 PM
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/international/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2025409
Screen stealers
Asia's exhibition sector continues to grapple with an organized, brazen and increasingly dangerous piracy problem
Once considered the pot of gold at the end of the industry's rainbow, Asian exhibition has proved at once profitable and troublesome in recent years. Piracy, bureaucracy, product cycles, overscreening, underscreening and unexpected factors like this year's SARS outbreak have made Asia a volatile region for film exhibitors and distributors.
But it's a region that has grown up fast: In 1990, there were no multiplexes until Australia's Village Roadshow moved into Singapore. Since then, it has been a heady ride to catch up with the rest of the world; after all, Asia's cinemagoing audience accounts for much of the world's population.
Some nations in the region, like South Korea, are in a growth cycle; others, like the more mature Singapore market, are struggling to maintain boxoffice and admissions. Japan, one of the world's top three markets for U.S. studio fare, is growing steadily but remains underscreened relative to its population. And after years of appearing to be tantalizing prospects -- especially because of their vast populations -- China and India finally are opening up not only to increased levels of foreign involvement in multiplex development, but also to growing local activity (though high government taxes on exhibitors in India remain a major obstacle, observers say).
But there have been corporate casualties along the way: Village Roadshow, once the pioneer in Asian multiplexing, has exited nearly every market it entered in the region, part of a company strategy to focus only on core-performing territories (at press time, Village Roadshow was believed on the verge of selling its Taiwanese interests to Hong Kong-based Golden Harvest Entertainment).
"The multiplex building frenzy (in Asia) does appear to have slowed down in 2002 and into 2003," says Sarah Brown of London-based Dodona Research, which specializes in the exhibition/distribution sector and is releasing next month the latest edition of its annual regional report "Cinemagoing Asia Pacific."
Brown says a majority of exhibitors in the region are consolidating and refurbishing, rather than building new sites, but that there are pockets of growth. Those include the Philippines, which is enjoying a strong real estate development cycle -- resulting also in more cinemas -- and underscreened South Korea, where audiences are flocking to the bevy of new multiplexes being built.
In addition, Brown says: "China is seeing growing investment in new cinemas throughout the country; Warner Bros. opened its Shanghai joint-venture multiplex to great success in July. (And) in the mature markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, it is a rise in ticket prices that will sustain boxoffice growth in future years."
She adds that while the SARS outbreak has stalled admissions in many Asian markets this year, "there is a general feeling of hope among exhibitors that good film product and appetite for cinemagoing will continue and boost final-year totals."
But piracy remains Asia's major impediment to returns on investment for exhibitors and distributors, especially amid the growing penetration of DVD product throughout the region.
According to the Motion Picture Assn., Asia this year has accounted for 97% of worldwide VCD piracy and 77% of DVD piracy. Last year, the organization's American studio members suffered losses easily surpassing $600 million in the region, excluding unauthorized Internet downloading.
Through the third quarter of this year, the MPA, through its anti-piracy unit in Hong Kong (which has operations in 13 key Asian markets), had conducted 10,293 raids on illegal retailers -- a 51% increase from the comparable 2002 period -- and 54 raids on known optical-disc manufacturing factories.
Unit head Mike Ellis says criminal syndicates throughout the region, after making money from VCD piracy during previous years, are moving into the more lucrative DVD market and becoming far more aggressive in their tactics, including the increasing importation of DVDs to distribute to markets outside Asia.
"Increasingly, pirate syndicates are well-organized, opportunistic, risk-friendly, financially astute and frequently violent -- thus making enforcement dangerous and difficult," he says. "We are continuing to observe that the profit gained through piracy is attracting a level of organized crime that is both hierarchical and entrepreneurial. Existing criminal sanctions for piracy are often inadequate, and there is no respect for copyright laws, allowing for huge profits with minimal risk. Governments must show leadership regarding this serious problem."
Says Brown: "Generally, even with the growing day-and-date release schedules with (films from) America, no country is really denting the pirates' profits. Perhaps it's an issue Asia needs to accept and is going to take years to solve."
For now, most eyes are on China, where the government in June ratified the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement with Hong Kong, which will allow greater levels of foreign ownership in exhibition joint ventures (provided the venture is with a Hong Kong company). China also is ramping up development of digital cinemas -- effectively forgoing the traditional multiplex-development phase undertaken in other Asian markets -- in a government-backed bid to fast-track modernization of the nation's exhibition and distribution infrastructure.
"There is a growing sense that the country wishes to take advantage of all the interest in its untapped market; however, only time will tell how far this process will go," Brown says. "It does demonstrate that each country in Asia is very different from the next (and) that though the region may appear ... very static, on a micro level, there is a lot going on in some countries."
***
do you own pirated dvd's from asia? would you buy them? do you think it's "wrong"?
Screen stealers
Asia's exhibition sector continues to grapple with an organized, brazen and increasingly dangerous piracy problem
Once considered the pot of gold at the end of the industry's rainbow, Asian exhibition has proved at once profitable and troublesome in recent years. Piracy, bureaucracy, product cycles, overscreening, underscreening and unexpected factors like this year's SARS outbreak have made Asia a volatile region for film exhibitors and distributors.
But it's a region that has grown up fast: In 1990, there were no multiplexes until Australia's Village Roadshow moved into Singapore. Since then, it has been a heady ride to catch up with the rest of the world; after all, Asia's cinemagoing audience accounts for much of the world's population.
Some nations in the region, like South Korea, are in a growth cycle; others, like the more mature Singapore market, are struggling to maintain boxoffice and admissions. Japan, one of the world's top three markets for U.S. studio fare, is growing steadily but remains underscreened relative to its population. And after years of appearing to be tantalizing prospects -- especially because of their vast populations -- China and India finally are opening up not only to increased levels of foreign involvement in multiplex development, but also to growing local activity (though high government taxes on exhibitors in India remain a major obstacle, observers say).
But there have been corporate casualties along the way: Village Roadshow, once the pioneer in Asian multiplexing, has exited nearly every market it entered in the region, part of a company strategy to focus only on core-performing territories (at press time, Village Roadshow was believed on the verge of selling its Taiwanese interests to Hong Kong-based Golden Harvest Entertainment).
"The multiplex building frenzy (in Asia) does appear to have slowed down in 2002 and into 2003," says Sarah Brown of London-based Dodona Research, which specializes in the exhibition/distribution sector and is releasing next month the latest edition of its annual regional report "Cinemagoing Asia Pacific."
Brown says a majority of exhibitors in the region are consolidating and refurbishing, rather than building new sites, but that there are pockets of growth. Those include the Philippines, which is enjoying a strong real estate development cycle -- resulting also in more cinemas -- and underscreened South Korea, where audiences are flocking to the bevy of new multiplexes being built.
In addition, Brown says: "China is seeing growing investment in new cinemas throughout the country; Warner Bros. opened its Shanghai joint-venture multiplex to great success in July. (And) in the mature markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, it is a rise in ticket prices that will sustain boxoffice growth in future years."
She adds that while the SARS outbreak has stalled admissions in many Asian markets this year, "there is a general feeling of hope among exhibitors that good film product and appetite for cinemagoing will continue and boost final-year totals."
But piracy remains Asia's major impediment to returns on investment for exhibitors and distributors, especially amid the growing penetration of DVD product throughout the region.
According to the Motion Picture Assn., Asia this year has accounted for 97% of worldwide VCD piracy and 77% of DVD piracy. Last year, the organization's American studio members suffered losses easily surpassing $600 million in the region, excluding unauthorized Internet downloading.
Through the third quarter of this year, the MPA, through its anti-piracy unit in Hong Kong (which has operations in 13 key Asian markets), had conducted 10,293 raids on illegal retailers -- a 51% increase from the comparable 2002 period -- and 54 raids on known optical-disc manufacturing factories.
Unit head Mike Ellis says criminal syndicates throughout the region, after making money from VCD piracy during previous years, are moving into the more lucrative DVD market and becoming far more aggressive in their tactics, including the increasing importation of DVDs to distribute to markets outside Asia.
"Increasingly, pirate syndicates are well-organized, opportunistic, risk-friendly, financially astute and frequently violent -- thus making enforcement dangerous and difficult," he says. "We are continuing to observe that the profit gained through piracy is attracting a level of organized crime that is both hierarchical and entrepreneurial. Existing criminal sanctions for piracy are often inadequate, and there is no respect for copyright laws, allowing for huge profits with minimal risk. Governments must show leadership regarding this serious problem."
Says Brown: "Generally, even with the growing day-and-date release schedules with (films from) America, no country is really denting the pirates' profits. Perhaps it's an issue Asia needs to accept and is going to take years to solve."
For now, most eyes are on China, where the government in June ratified the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement with Hong Kong, which will allow greater levels of foreign ownership in exhibition joint ventures (provided the venture is with a Hong Kong company). China also is ramping up development of digital cinemas -- effectively forgoing the traditional multiplex-development phase undertaken in other Asian markets -- in a government-backed bid to fast-track modernization of the nation's exhibition and distribution infrastructure.
"There is a growing sense that the country wishes to take advantage of all the interest in its untapped market; however, only time will tell how far this process will go," Brown says. "It does demonstrate that each country in Asia is very different from the next (and) that though the region may appear ... very static, on a micro level, there is a lot going on in some countries."
***
do you own pirated dvd's from asia? would you buy them? do you think it's "wrong"?