Spider-Man 3 Hits The Streets in China, Saw IV Update

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 -

While U.S. and international fans are teased with the occasional release of still shots from the film and short video clips called teasers, pirates in China are already selling the flick on the street according to Yahoo! news. The DVD's are going for just a buck each, and will undoubtedly show up on file sharing networks within a matter of days.

"It's too expensive to go to the cinema to watch movies," said Beijing resident Duan Nana. "This has a lot to do with why people are rushing to buy fake DVDs and watch movies at home. It's very common and it's logical."

This is why the United States won't allow China into the World Trade Oraganization, it isn't just the government, even the people have no respect for intellectual property. There is nothing logical about theft, and until something is done, China gets to sit on the outside and watch.

This amusing irony is not lost on me however: "There is even a warning on the back, printed in Chinese, against pirating the product."

Saw 4 (a.k.a. Saw IV) is currently in production and fearnet.com has a couple of boring stills (ungloriously stamped with their domain name of course) from the set in Canada, but they promise more in the future. Saw is a remarkable franchise in that the the first two films were shot for just over five million, which allowed them to make a huge profit (relatively speaking) after the theaters take, or just about $125m. Do the math, $5m to make them both, $125m profit.

I haven't seem them and they look extremely gross, but this franchise is gold.

Update, April 25:
Sony is reporting after a short investigation that Spider-Man 3 is *not* being sold on the streets of China. According to wire reports, these were in fact repackaged copies of Spider-Man 2. Neither of these events has been confirmed, so anything is still possible.

Other posts from this blog: Entertainment, Film, Spider-Man 3

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Anonymous

Apr 25, 2007, 11:34:00 AM
OMG. Please tell me you are joking. I have to endure another SAW movie? Shoot me now. I knew it was signed as a trilogy but how can they possibly make a forth? Aren't they just pressing their luck? They did very good with the transitions from one movie to another but I do NOT see where they left an opening for this last one. EVERYONE'S DEAD!! Each consecutive movie gets more disgusting and unfortunately my husband is a huge fan and I have had to sit through every single movie with my eyes half closed half the time. I am not looking forward to this release I can tell you that!! Somebody needs to tell these people to quit while they are ahead and let it be a cult trilogy!

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