14 DAY TRIAL // Although China is the place where a large number of the world's consumer electronics (not to mention other products as well) are manufactured, the problem of movie piracy is an extremely important issue there, as cheap, illegal copies of original movies are available just about everywhere, at some pretty low price tags (so low, that the normal users generally go for the knock-offs, instead of purchasing the real deals). However, the most important US movie studios seem to have found a solution to this problem, and have decided to hit the Chinese market with a batch of original, legal, yet extremely affordable DVDs.
Thus, according to an article by ArsTechnica, it would seem that, following in the footsteps of Warner Bros. and Fox, Paramount has become the latest major movie studio to offer some pretty sweet DVD deals to the Chinese customers. Thus, all the movies launched by the studio will arrive on DVD in China at only two months or so after their cinema release and will retail for just around 3 US dollars.
However, the most interesting thing about this whole move is the fact that, in order to fight the Chinese piracy, Paramount has chosen the most unlikely of partners, none other than one of its most important rivals, Warner Bros. The reason? Well, as mentioned earlier, Warner Bros. has already opened several outlets in China for selling DVDs, and it seems that the two companies are more interested in selling the discs (even at dirty-low prices) than fighting each other.
But if you think that selling movies just for 3 bucks is crazy, think again. First of all, the very low price point is an extremely important issue, since illegal movies are available on the Chinese market for as low as 1-1.5 US dollars. Then, the Chinese market has an extremely high potential (after all, the potential number of customers exceeds that of any other country around the world), which makes it even more attractive for the major studios, who have some pretty serious problems convincing westerners to buy DVDs (as they either go for HD DVDs or Blu-ray discs, go the cinema or download illegal copies from torrent websites).
As a conclusion....want to buy cheap movies? Buy a plane ticket, go to China...and you've got them!
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