George Lucas afraid of invisible piracy boogieman (kottke.org):
Jason Kottke bursts George Lucas’s bubble: score one for Team Pyjamas. I didn’t realize the studios made more on DVD sales than they do in theaters, keeping up to 80% of each dollar versus 50%. I wonder what the number of DVD players is relative to theater screens?
100 Million DVD Players in the U.S. – DVD Town:
The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) reported that, so far this year, another 13 million DVD players have been sold in the United States. This increases the total number to an impressive 100 million since the launch of the format in 1997.
In 2002, there were 35,170 indoor screens, and 634 outdoor.
What would you rather do, release a product that can be seen in 36,000 places that people have to travel to and that they find to be more of a hassle each time they go, or sell into a market with 100,000,000 locations, many of which require no travel and scheduling commitments? I’m not sure George is being honest with us or, worse, with himself.
Constant Craving from the album “Ingenue” by k.d. lang