TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2003
Matrix battles Chinese pirates
REUTERS
BEIJING: In the sci-fi blockbuster The Matrix Reloaded , the hero battles a swarm of enemies who keep multiplying until they overwhelm him and force him to flee.
Movie studios have waged a similar fight in China against a seemingly endless horde of pirates who hawk rip-off DVDs of the latest silver screen hits for less than $1.
Now, Warner Bros, the Time Warner studio behind The Matrix series, hopes to turn the tables by showing the trilogy's final film in China on the same day as in other countries, betting that people would rather spend their money on legitimate movie tickets than on fake DVDs, officials said on Monday.
The November 6 debut of The Matrix Revolutions in Beijing -- timed to coincide with its US release on November 5 -- will be the first time Chinese moviegoers won't have to wait weeks or months for the latest box office smash to light up local screens.
"We are speeding up the importing of films with the aim of curbing pirated copies," said Zhou Tiedong, an official with China Film Group Corp, the government body that approves foreign films.
"The pirated copies usually appear in China three days after the first showing in the United States. We will leave zero space for pirated copies if films can be shown at the same time as the international market," Zhou said.
Piracy still rampant
A Warner executive in Beijing confirmed the plans but gave no further details. Other spokesmen in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Los Angeles were not immediately available for comment.
The plans were sealed just ahead of a visit to Beijing this week by US Commerce Secretary Don Evans, who is expected to raise piracy and other issues in meetings with Chinese officials.
The Matrix movies, starring Keanu Reeves as a hacker who learns that sentient machines have enslaved humanity in a vast computer simulation, which has won legions of fans in China thanks to their formula of Hong Kong-style kung fu , mind-bending special effects and philosophical ruminations.
But the Revolutions debut will be but one step in tapping the potential of the entertainment market in China, where rosy developments like rising incomes among its 1.3 billion people are offset by widespread disregard for copyrights.
Although authorities sometimes make a show of cracking down on piracy by crushing mountains of DVDs and compact discs with steamrollers, many say the problem has only grown worse.
"The number of infringement cases handled on a criminal basis is still too low to create the required level of deterrence," the American Chamber of Commerce in China said in a recent report.
Box office still tiny
Down the street from the US embassy in Beijing, men and women lug totebags bulging with pirated DVDs, including recent hits like Kill Bill -- Vol. 1 from Disney's Miramax.
Far from being driven underground like the humans fighting the machines in The Matrix , pirates operate openly in brightly lit stores stocked with a wide range of shrink-wrapped fakes.
There are few alternatives. There are no video rental shops and quality cinemas are few and far between.
The Matrix Reloaded , which still packed Beijing's handful of high-end theatres weeks after its local release, hauled in about 41 million yuan ($5 million), China Film's Zhou said.
That compares to a global box office take of more than $735 million, and $281 million in the United States alone.
Zhou said Revolutions was poised to top that. A recent film by martial arts star Jackie Chan had earned 25 million yuan after debuting at the same time as other Asian markets, 15 million yuan more than Chan's previous film, he said.
"Why? People could not find pirated copies before it was publicly shown in theatres." Zhou said. "Films should be watched in theatres. We will help Chinese audiences get used to enjoying films in theatres."
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