Zombieland Co-Writer: BitTorrent “Affects Likelihood” of Part 2
Rheet Reese laments that Zombieland is currently the most pirated movie on BitTorrent, and says that it may ruin chances for a sequel.
A few days ago I mentioned how the writer and director of Ink praised piracy, and BitTorrent in particular, for generating “unprecedented exposure” for the movie, pushing it to #16 on IMDb’s movie meter and to the 20th most popular movie in the world.
“Knowing there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it, we’ve embraced the piracy and are just happy Ink is getting unprecedented exposure,” they wrote in an email to fans and friends.
On the other side of the coin is Zombieland co-writer Rheet Reese who apparently believes that piracy is a bad thing, and that rather than create a buzz it costs Hollywood precious dollars that could prevent a sequel of the zombie-movie thriller.
“Zombieland currently the most pirated movie on bit torrent,” he Twittered a few days ago. “Over one million downloads and counting.”
He perhaps cited TF’s running weekly chart of the most pirated movies on BitTorrent.
“Beyond depressing,” he adds. “This greatly affects the likelihood of a Zombieland 2.”
It’s melodramatic for sure and ignores the reality that ALL MOVIES are pirated at some point, yet usually has no tangible effect on box office ticket sales.
Take, for example, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. A workprint of the action movie leaked to BitTorrent about 1 month prior to its scheduled theater release date. It’s made $440 million to date (including US DVD sales). Does anybody think there won’t be a sequel? Hardly.
The same was true of The Dark Knight. Despite being the most pirated movie of last year it has earned well over $1.2 billion USD in worldwide ticket and US DVD sales. A third installment of that franchise is already under way.
To drive home the fact that the movie industry isn’t hurting for profits are their very own reports of record profits dating as far back as 2005.
Something tells me the movie industry will be just fine and a sequel to Zombieland will be made, especially when you consider it cost a paltry $23.6 million USD to make and has already earned $82.4 million USD worldwide.
I think Reese may be suffering from that one illegal download equals one lost ticket sale nonsense.
Stay tuned.
jared@zeropaid.com
Continued here:
Zombieland Co-Writer: BitTorrent “Affects Likelihood” of Part 2