VideoImageWatch the trailer for the Lego Batman movie. IT APPEARS that even a $5 million mistake wasn’t enough to make Village Roadshow reconsider its global release date for films. In 2014, Australian audiences got a cinematic release of The Lego Movie 54 days after it had screened in the US.Aussies decided they didn’t want to wait almost two months to see the film, so they turned to piracy — a common practice for most delayed content.With The Lego Movie on course to become the most pirated release of 2014, Village Roadshow chief executive Graham Burke acknowledged the costly mistake.“We estimate that (piracy of) The Lego Movie cost somewhere between $3.5 million and $5 million in sales,” he said, reportedThe Australian.“It was doubly painful because Lego was produced in Australia. Piracy not only impacts profits, but if unchecked will impede new business models and growth.”Mr Burke went on to say that Village Roadshow would make an effort to distribute all major films at the same time as the US release, in an attempt to combat rampant online piracy.
At least that’s what he said.@BrickingAround LEGO Batman will be released in Australia on 30th March, 2017.— Roadshow Films (@RoadshowFilms) December 5, 2016 This week Village Roadshow announced on Twitter that Australia would be getting Lego: Batman movie on March 30, 2017. This would be great if it wasn’t some 48 days later than the February 10 release date for the US.While a slightly shorter period, the logic behind repeating history and delaying the release is yet to be seen.Maybe Village Roadshow is just hoping really hard that Aussies will wait for the release instead of pirating the film.Unfortunately, the likelihood of this happening is slim to none..au has reached out to Village Roadshow for comment regarding the delay.The average gap between films being released in the US and locally is 20 days, despite claims from Village Roadshow that delays are the 'exception' The Lego Movie, which was distributed by Village Roadshow, was not released until two months after the US release.
The head of one of Australia's largest film production and distribution companies has called the delay of movie releases in Australia a "rare exception", implying films are not usually released here later than in other countries. However, a comparison of film release dates shows the opposite. After the internet service provider iiNet pointed out a delay in the release of The Lego Movie, Village Roadshow co-chief executive Graham Burke told ZDnet: "The Lego Movie, with iiNet along with all the lies they tell, and they know they're telling lies, a lot of good decent people out there have a bunch of assumptions they believe to be correct [because of iiNet]. They know that Lego was a rare exception. The reason Lego was delayed [was] because it was an Australian film," he said. "We made the decision to hold it off a couple of months until the school holiday break so kids could see it in the holidays, which is when they want to see it. That was a one-off. It's not an example of how films are delayed in Australia."
Burke's comments are at odds with the common perception that it is normal for movies and TV releases in Australia to lag behind the US. So I decided to check how Australian release dates compare with US release dates. I took Box Office Mojo's list of top 100 movies by box office takings for both 2014 and 2013 for Australia and then added US release dates sourced from Box Office Mojo and IMDB. Although IMDB crowd-sources such information, I spot-checked some release dates against those on Australian cinema websites and found no discrepancies (though please mention in the comments if you see any errors). I removed any movies that had not been released in both countries, then took the remaining 168 films and calculated the difference in days between the two dates by subtracting the US release date from the Australian release date. Positive numbers mean the film was released in the US first, negative numbers mean it was released in Australia first. On average, the film release dates for Australia were 20 days behind the US.
Only 41 titles were released in both countries within a day of each other, and 20 were released in Australia before the US. Most titles, 107, were released in Australia only after they had been released in the US. Here's the full list of titles, sorted by the difference in days: Village Roadshow was contacted for comment on the analysis, but declined as Burke was unavailable. Edit: Fixed an incorrect date for Walking With Dinosaurs, which has shifted the average gap in release datesLast updated: 10 February 2017 The 48-day countdown begins for Australians keen on watching The Lego Batman Movie, even though the locally produced flick launches overseas today. The Lego Batman Movie (Village Roadshow/Animal Logic) It's a case of deja vu for Australians, who had to wait 54 days after 2014's The Lego Movie was released in most other countries first. Many chose not to wait, downloading the movie illegally; a move estimated to cost studio Village Roadshow $3.5 to $5 million in lost sales.
At the time, Village Roadshow co-chief executive and anti-piracy advocate Graham Burke described the delayed release as a mistake, assuring fans that a follow-up to the smash hit would have a release date in-line with the US. "We made one hell of a mistake with [The Lego Movie]," Burke told an audience at the Online Copyright Infringement Forum in 2014. "We held it for a holiday period, it was a disaster. It caused it to be pirated very widely. And as a consequence: No more. Our policy going forward is that all of our movies will release day and date with the United States." But it appears Village Roadshow has since back-peddled its stance. The Australian release of The Lego Batman Movie is being held back and by a long margin. It'll be released in 42 other countries before Australia, in spite of it being developed by local animation studio Animal Logic in Sydney's Fox Studios. The 46th and last country in which the movie will be released is New Zealand. Holding the release off for so long in Australia will only encourage piracy, says Sarah Agar, manager of consumer policy at CHOICE.
"Australians have been telling us for a long time that piracy comes down to price and availability. The head of Village Roadshow publicly accepted that delaying the release of The Lego Movie in 2014 caused it to be widely pirated." Burke has been a longtime proponent of anti-piracy measures. Offering the movie in-line with the US would've been the simplest way to stop it from being pirated, added Agar. "Village Roadshow has demanded that the government introduce legislation to protect its old-school business model, including new excessive website blocking powers, but it's not taking the most simple action it can to reduce piracy." When the movie is released in Australia on 30 March it'll be a week before Australian school holidays. The timing mirrors that of the original, which still fared well with global box office sales of $469 million. Village Roadshow was not immediately available for comment. Helping older people online Tomorrow's smartphones globally unveiled at MWC