>Spidey-Sense Is Tingling… $1 DVDs of Spidey 3 Hit the Streets of Beijing UPDATED: Sony Claims Discs are Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3 is on sale for $1 on the streets of Beijing. What’s worse? I bet it will be all over the world via internet by the end of the day.
Professionally I always get nervous and upset when I hear news like this. Chinese pirates beat Spider-Man to the punch. In todays world, the success of a film is in its opening weekend, and word of mouth can kill it as quickly as it opens.
That’s one of the biggest reasons that the number of reviews prior to release has decreased, and studios work to build anticipation while insuring that there is NO chance that you won’t be able to see the film opening weekend if you so desire. 1200 screen openings are not unique for a popular film.
While the Producers have claimed that it isn’t the final version, October’s release of ‘Highlander: The Source’ has already hit the internet in a widescreen stereo version.
In the near future, we’re going to do an entire Podcast devoted to this subject, and the importance of a carefully planned and executed motion picture marketing plan.
Until then, don’t watch an advance copy of an upcoming movie… wait and go see it the way it’s intended, in it’s uncut or director’s cut DVD… err… in the theater!
UPDATED: Sony says China pirated Spider-Man DVDs are fakes. While it is possible that all of the bootleg discs are actually Spider-Man 2, it wouldn’t be abnormal for Sony to make this claim to stop people for looking for their own copy. If we get confirmation that Spider-Man 3 has been leaked, we’ll let you know.
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