In its efforts to curb piracy, Sony will release the eagerly awaited Spider-Man 3 in China before rolling it out in North American theaters, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Chinese audiences will be able to see the film on May 3, the day before it debuts domestically. Given the pervasiveness of the black market in China, other studios are also seeing the benefit of getting prints in theaters there before pirated DVDs have a chance to hit the street.
Yuan, whose company is China’s only licensed importer of the 40 overseas films allowed to screen theatrically each year, would not say whether he confirmed that the Film Bureau had approved the import. Only 20 overseas films each year can share in a percentage of their own boxoffice receipts. “Spider-Man 3” will be one of those films.
As foreign-made entertainment is strictly controlled by the Chinese government, the China Film Group is the country’s only legal importer of overseas films and also controls the largest distribution company. The Chinese film business as a whole reportedly lost $2.5 billion to piracy in 2005, the year Spider-Man 2 came out.
Just as many Americans feel it’s okay to illegally rip music onto their iPods, the Chinese populous has become accustomed to buying entertainment on the black market since that is the only way to get many American movies and TV series under governmental censorship policies. Comedy Central’s animated South Park is one show that is very popular among the nation’s youth though it’s not permitted to be seen. Even a politically neutral superhero film like Spider-Man 3 will be edited for content by at the China Film Bureau.
Spider-Man 3 will be released on a day-and-date basis in many parts of the world, and will even open a couple days earlier in Japan, but this is the first time the Sony/Columbia Pictures will open a pic in China prior to its North American bow.
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