[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: POA Spoilers (Long & might tick a few ppl off but that's life!)

[Shaun Hately]

On 5 Jun 2004 at 23:33, Kathryn Cawte wrote:

> Shaun Hately
> > *Sigh* and it won't be out here until next Thursday. All these
> > posts are making me more and more eager.
> 
> Do the film studios hate you Australians? I must make a note not to mention
> it to my beta before Thursday then because last time I mentioned a film to
> her I got a *long* rant on how good films are always release in Australia
> after absolutely everywhere else in the entire world.
> 
> *Why* doea Australia get everything after everyone else anyway?

Generally it's not the film studios, but the major local cinema 
chains, who have another power to ensure that the smaller chains 
and independent cinemas fall into line as well.

The local chains decide when they can release films to best effect 
for the local market.

Historically speaking (ie, before the internet) delaying the 
release of a film in Australia even by months wasn't at all 
uncommon - Australians weren't constantly bombarded by information 
from overseas so it didn't matter that much, and most people 
probably weren't aware of how long we waited. Most delays weren't 
actually months but 4-6 weeks wasn't uncommon.

Today it's a bit better - mostly due to the internet - the cinemas 
know that Australian's are interested and do know what's going on, 
and the longer it takes, the more likely people are to get pirate 
copies from overseas. So at least most big blockbuster movies are 
released here pretty quickly.

In the case of PoA, the cinemas actually are releasing it just 
about as soon as they reasonably can - there was an embargo on 
release in Australia until official release in the US - which was 
Friday our time. The problem is that by long standing practice new 
movies are released here on Thursdays - there's very few exceptions 
to this rule, and that means a six day delay.

With the first two Harry Potter films, there was a longer delay - 
and again that was because of 'local conditions' governing the 
decisions the cinemas took. Those two films were released in 
November - which is very near the end of the Australian school 
year. The cinemas elected to delay until closer to the  start of 
the summer (Christmas) school holidays.

This time around, the delay is only a week, partly because next 
weekend is a long weekend in at least parts of Australia (The 
Queen's Birthday).

Honestly, most people can understand the six day delay (from US 
release) that Prisoner of Azkaban has - but when it's longer than 
that, a lot of people get *really* annoyed


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia