Korean Release Date for Tranformers: 6/28/2007

In a "huh?" moment, news is coming out from Korean websites that the live action Transformers movie is coming out over there nearly a week on before its United States bow. Korea will get the movie 6/28/07, the US 7/4/07, and Japan on 8/4/07.

Not really a big deal, just odd piece of news especially in light that Transformers are a Japanese creation, made famous via American marketing, and only so-so popular in Korea. Even odder considering the Korean market will probably only represent a small fraction of the ticket sales of the foreign market totals. Even though the foriegn market sales are growing, a hit movie at the US box office can make more then the totals for the rest of the world combined. Often, its the US sales, not foreign sales that determine if a movie is a success. So from a business decision standpoint, its seems rather pointless. As a result, my thinking is this decision is due to the constant fears of rampant pirating that apparently occurs in that region of the country. A fear that the MPAA bends over backwards to magnify and distort.

The problem with the studios approach to pirating is they have a 1:1 ratio approach. I.E., every copy pirated = 1 ticket not sold. It doesn't really occur to them that if someone is going through the trouble to get a pirated object they probably were not going to buy it to begin with especially considering that most pirated movies are a camcorder capture of what is occurring on screen. Not saying that doesn't make pirating a non issue, but it does make you wonder exactly what the real impact is versus the made up virtual numbers that the MPAA currently uses.

As a result of the camcorder recording quality of sight and sound takes a nose dive. Ok if watching a romantic movie or comedy, not so much if watching a things that go boom CGI extravaganza that hopefully will be Transformers. If pirates and their customers are ok with the quality drop to save a few bucks, they probably where not going to buy a ticket to begin with.

Ironically this decision really means that the curious who want to know but not willing to pay much for the information will now have a week jump to flood the Japanese and US markets with subtitled versions of the movie. For the enterprising that means you can probably have watched and read a crappy quality version of the film by 6/29/07.

Its these little pitfalls that is probably why many films such as Spider-Man 3 are going for global release dates. Its seems like the thing to do if just spent $150 million making a film and probably another $50 million to market it. Not only get a jump on the pirates worldwide, but the probable avalanche of bad reviews will be lost in the collective noise. Not saying the film will be bad, but the simple reality is many movie reviewers keep looking at film as if they should be like literature. Exists only to inform on the human condition and do all that lit junk. They forget that the question of whether the film entertained is and should always be a large part of the review equation. The lit crap is just a bonus that elevates the film but shouldn't be required of a film.

Anyway, after 6/28/07, the spoilers shall abound all over the web and check your torrent clients for a subtitled copy of your own. Just be wary, the MPAA tends to fake an upload to capture the IP addresses of the computers participating in the data swarm. Not proof in and of itself (the swarm doesn't tell them if you have actually uploaded or downloaded data and how much), but enough for the ISPs to send out warning letters.