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Wolverine online leak exemplifies problems modern films face
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See it May 1st... Or right now...
X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been receiving a lot of media attention over the past few days. Under most circumstances, 20th Century Fox would be thrilled at all the free publicity. Unfortunately for them, the film, starring Hugh Jackman, is in the news because it has leaked onto the Internet almost a month before the set release date of May 1st.
An unfinished copy of the movie has been circulating the net, lacking most special effects, and compared by Jackman to “a Ferrari without a paint job.” The film has reportedly already been downloaded over 100,000 times since the leak, with the number growing by the hour. One FoxNews.com blogger, Roger Friedman, even reviewed the film based on the version he saw online. Although the reviews were positive, Friedman was fired for the article because Fox viewed it as “promoting piracy.”
In addition to the revenue lost from the leak, Wolverine was also hit financially on the tax credit received for the film. While films shot in New York City can receive as much as a 35% rebate, Wolverine only qualified for 15% since they shot in Australia. Had the movie qualified as an Australian film (which it did not), then it would have received a 40% rebate.
Wolverine is facing several predicaments that plague most modern studio films nowadays. Illegal downloading is running rampant, with no end in sight. Keeping the major threat to revenue in mind, studios must really pick and choose what films they release. In one way, this could be a good thing, since we may expect that the quality of those released will be much higher. On the other hand, it may be a disaster, because it could lead to only “sure-fire” moneymakers coming out- in other words, sequels, remakes, and blockbusters with tons of special effects (sound familiar, Wolverine?).
The tightening of financial belts is also coming at films from a tax angle. Productions are being entirely based on where it will be cheapest to film, rather than the best location for the story. In some cases, it may not make a difference to the quality of the motion picture, but a side effect would be the damage it can do to economies of areas that may depend on film and can no longer afford to offer such high tax benefits.
We are witnessing a true revolution in the entertainment industry. Instead of films being made with scripts and cameras, they’re being made with wallets and rebates. The heyday of studio pictures is coming to a close due to the constant economic pressures as well as exponential boosts in technology that make piracy so easy. Smaller budget pictures, which do not rely as heavily on the box office numbers that studio pictures do, are slowly but surely making their way to the forefront of the industry. Yes, we will still see blockbusters, remakes, and sequels make their money, but other than that, studios need to be prepared to go fish.
For those of you who have not yet downloaded Wolverine, you can catch it in theaters on May 1st. Although I would love to write a review, I don’t want to end up like Mr. Friedman…
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