Bollywood Films.

Just a quick post regarding a comment left on a previous post asking about Bollywood (Indian) Films. The ones that have played over the last couple years were put on by others renting out Western Film. They sold the tickets etc. I haven't heard from them for a while so they may not wish to do any more. The attendance was never super high.
I tried to put on Bollywood films myself a couple times but I didn't know how to market to the proper community.

The basic problem is we have to wait 2-3 weeks after the films have been released in order to play them. We have to wait until a theatre in Toronto is done with a print before we can show it. The piracy is so bad on Bollywood films they are basically dead by the time we can show them.

I do find it frustrating as I'm constantly being asked to show Bollywood films but then not enough people show up when we do. Piracy is a two way street, if people are willing to watch the pirated versions then theatres won't be able to play them.

Piracy / Copyright infringment discussion.

Just to let readers know the person I have been having the discussion with about piracy and copyright infringement in the Transformers post below posted a response to my last comment. It took me a couple days to approve it because I was waiting until I had time to write a response (damm my lack of typing skills!)
So feel free to check out the comments and weigh in with your own opinions.

Paramount trying really hard to keep Transformers from Pirates.

We received a notice from Paramount today. It's not really relevant to Western Film since we are a second run theatre but I found it interesting nonetheless.

This is the most elaborate method of trying to keep a film from pirates yet.

Transformers opens at most theatres on Tuesday July 3. The prints will arrive on Friday the 29th. A film print generally comes in two metal cans, each one holding some of the smaller reels that put together constitute the film. The second can is going to have a combination lock on it?! Not until Monday the 2nd will the theatres will be able to get their combination by phone or over the Internet from Technicolor.

The desired result is the full film won't be made up until as close as possible to the opening to keep employees from pirating it.

I wish people would realize piracy is theft and the movie industry didn't have to take all these expensive precautions.

If I was running a first run theatre I'd be a little nervous. If something goes wrong and you can't get that second can open there isn't much time to get another print. All it would take is for the depot to mix up two of the locks or write a number wrong.

I'd have a set of bolt cutters handy.