can someone explain why region lock is a thing for films

[CatXice]

So i saw a post saying fast x could be rented on prime video so i was all happy going to rent it tonight and watch it with the misses only to work out after like 30mins thats its only available in the US so i cant watch it as am in the UK sooo i guess i just wont watch it now at all as by the time it comes on to the UK prime i will have forgotten about it so GG you lost out on my money along with a lot of other peoples i guess?? 

so whats the point of region locking a film thats only going to be coming out in that place anyway just seems a way to make less money??

[Erioch]

Politics.

[da na]

Often has to do with a country's copyright restrictions - sometimes because copyright hasn't been cleared for a specific region for, say, a certain song used in the movie, etc. There's not a universal copyright law, it's different everywhere.

[CatXice]

7 minutes ago, Erioch said:

Politics.

literally all governments in the world need throwing out and rebuilding with tradesman the world would run 100x better 

[CatXice]

8 minutes ago, da na said:

Often has to do with a country's copyright restrictions - sometimes because copyright hasn't been cleared for a specific region for, say, a certain song used in the movie, etc. There's not a universal copyright law, it's different everywhere.

even if that is correct with the amount of money on the line for the studio you would think they would get this sort of thing sorted out the the release as they have and will lose out on millions of pounds due to this sort of thing and its not like they didnt release a film 2 months ago that i can watch on prime which makes it even more stupid haha

 

[dilpickle]

Movies come out at different times in different countries. Dubs and subs have to be made. Local censorship has to be applied. Actors have to go around to promote. A different company might own the rights in another country.

 

It's gotten way better than it used to be when it might take a year for a movie to be released in your country. 

[CatXice]

Just now, dilpickle said:

Movies come out at different times in different countries. Dubs and subs have to be made. Local censorship has to be applied. Actors have to go around to promote. A different company might own the rights in another country.

 

It's gotten way better than it used to be when it might take a year for a movie to be released in your country. 

i get the subs and dubs but for the us to uk this shouldnt be a problem and as for censorship stick an 18 rating on it and call it a day if theres a problem with promoting thats just bad planning/time management hahaha  

[dilpickle]

3 minutes ago, CatXice said:

i get the subs and dubs but for the us to uk this shouldnt be a problem and as for censorship stick an 18 rating on it and call it a day if theres a problem with promoting thats just bad planning/time management hahaha  

Let the studio know how you feel. Whining about it here isn't accomplishing anything. 

[Neroon]

It's always about deals per region.

 

Fast X could be crazy hot in some regions, whereas in others no one cares, so they wouldn't pay much. Or if it is crazy hot, they might make a deal with other distributors.

 

Amazon for example isn't that popular in my country, it's growing for sure, but if you want to release Fast X here, Prime is not gonna be the most popular choice to rent it from. So if Amazon would want exclusivity or even just the rights in general, they would need to pay way more than it will make.

[CatXice]

1 minute ago, dilpickle said:

Let the studio know how you feel. Whining about it here isn't accomplishing anything. 

its more a case of i just get fathom how they would just (as far as i can tell) sat around and do fuck all while there lossing a shit ton of money i thought that was the whole point of mass corpo's ahhahaah 

[seanondemand]

40 minutes ago, CatXice said:

literally all governments in the world need throwing out and rebuilding with tradesman the world would run 100x better 

If they were anything like all the tradesmen I deal with they would just come in and complain about the last tradesmen who were there and then go wildly over their initial estimate

[Totallycasual]

This kind of thing happens all the time in Australia, our Netflix library is a tiny fraction of the one people see in the US because the rights to a lot of the movies and TV shows are picked apart and sold off to various Australian streaming services or cable TV type services.  It's one of the main reasons that Australians are among the worst content pirates in the world, because companies are always geo-blocking us and doing all they can to isolate profit from us in extra ways. 

[LAwLz]

23 hours ago, Erioch said:

Politics.

 

23 hours ago, CatXice said:

literally all governments in the world need throwing out and rebuilding with tradesman the world would run 100x better 

In 99% of cases it's not politics. At least not government politics.

And no, not all governments in the world need to be thrown out, and my guess is that tradesmen would be terrible at running the country.

As George Burn said:

Quote

Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.

 

 

23 hours ago, CatXice said:

even if that is correct with the amount of money on the line for the studio you would think they would get this sort of thing sorted out the the release as they have and will lose out on millions of pounds due to this sort of thing and its not like they didnt release a film 2 months ago that i can watch on prime which makes it even more stupid haha

That's the thing... They make more money by doing things the way they do. For example by not releasing the movie on streaming services in the UK, the UK audience has to go to the cinema where they make more per viewer. By negotiating region specific deals they can engage more companies (local companies) in bidding wars and drive up the license costs. 

 

 

23 hours ago, CatXice said:

its more a case of i just get fathom how they would just (as far as i can tell) sat around and do fuck all while there lossing a shit ton of money i thought that was the whole point of mass corpo's ahhahaah 

It's still running in cinemas. That's why it's not available on streaming services. Because they make more money by making people go to the cinema. 

 

Trust me, they do the things they do for a reason. If you don't understand why they do things the way they do it's not because they are stupid. It's because the things you think would be smart would actually not make as much money as the things they are doing. 

[Poinkachu]

10 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

by not releasing the movie on streaming services in the UK, the UK audience has to go to the cinema where they make more per viewer. By negotiating region specific deals they can engage more companies (local companies) in bidding wars and drive up the license costs.

This ^^^

 

If there is people who line up for hours to spend $2000 dollars or more just to get a brand new PC parts and/or an increase of 10fps.

There is people who will spend money on cinema to watch it sooner than later.

 

Especially if they gets FOMO a lot.

[CatXice]

12 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

This ^^^

 

If there is people who line up for hours to spend $2000 dollars or more just to get a brand new PC parts and/or an increase of 10fps.

There is people who will spend money on cinema to watch it sooner than later.

 

Especially if they gets FOMO a lot.

that would work out but its the same price on US prime as it is in the cinema here XD

[Poinkachu]

3 minutes ago, CatXice said:

that would work out but its the same price on US prime as it is in the cinema here XD

Well, you pay on US prime and you can watch it with as much people you can cram into the room.
At cinema, you pay per person.

 

Now idk if there's some concession or whatever between cinema and movie makers, never got curious enough about it to do research.
But yeah, opening streaming too early can also means angry cinema owners. What kinda downside for the movie makers that will bring, idk.

[LAwLz]

1 minute ago, Poinkachu said:

Well, you pay on US prime and you can watch it with as much people you can cram into the room.
At cinema, you pay per person.

And Amazon probably takes a different cut than cinemas does, and Amazon probably paid to have the privilege of having the movie on its platform in the US, but didn't do the same in the UK. 

[Radium_Angel]

On 6/9/2023 at 4:14 PM, CatXice said:

subs and dubs but for the us to uk this shouldnt be a problem

For fast X they gotta subtitle Vin Diesel. 

[Erioch]

46 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

For fast X they gotta subtitle Vin Diesel. 

I am Groot.

[Mark Kaine]

On 6/9/2023 at 10:00 PM, Erioch said:

Politics.

then why are games not region locked? 

 

this is 100% a corporate decision,  they want to split marketing/ revenue in regions, because those are often handled differently by different departments etc.

 

in other words, greed and stupidity,  there's no law that would require such a strategy (copyright,  give me a break,  how's that a reason...)

 

 

13 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

For fast X they gotta subtitle Vin Diesel

that's about the only logical reason to delay releases actually,  i still think its stupid that they don't just do worldwide releases more (i think sometimes there's months long delays between regions, mostly for that reason,  and often the voice acting is horrible- number one reason i stopped watching movies entirely,  and it doesn't feel like im missing anything tbh)

[Erioch]

3 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

then why are games not region locked?

I mean, there's a long history of games being banned in certain countries or having to be modified before release.  For a very long time, you couldn't buy Wolfenstein 3D in Germany, for instance.

[Mark Kaine]

10 minutes ago, Erioch said:

I mean, there's a long history of games being banned in certain countries or having to be modified before release.  For a very long time, you couldn't buy Wolfenstein 3D in Germany, for instance.

yeah, but what kind of argument is that since it happened in the past and is currently not happening  - or at least very rarely... i mean you could always say "but china banned poo bear!' ... its just not the same thing and done for entirely different reasons. 

 

 

 

 

10 minutes ago, Erioch said:

you couldn't buy Wolfenstein 3D in Germany, for instance.

not entirely correct,  you could always import "banned" games afaik - which is a loophole but entirely legal (you just couldn't get them officially in a store *in germany*, thats correct) 

 

 

 

[Erioch]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah, but what kind of argument is that since it happened in the past and is currently not happening  - or at least very rarely... i mean you could always say "but china banned poo bear!' ... its just not the same thing and done for entirely different reasons. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games_by_country

 

Oh, it's still happening.

[Mark Kaine]

6 minutes ago, Erioch said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games_by_country

 

Oh, it's still happening.

Quote

because it violates a section of the Strafgesetzbuch (criminal code). Private possession (and thus playing it) and acquisition (such as downloading a demo from the Internet) are still legal, but any dissemination is not. The seller would break the law if a sale took place, not the buyer. However, on 10 December 2002, an "Oberlandesgericht" (higher regional court) in Hamm decided that a single sale of a single copy does not qualify as dissemination.[48] Unlike indexing by the BPjM, which restricts the sale of all content-equal versions. Versions that are confiscated are enumerated in the court order. Being put on the index by the BPjM or, since April 1, 2003, being refused a rating by the USK, does not equal a ban

Oh.  (maybe read what you post and and reply to before posting xD)

 

 

 

Either way, as said, this is an entirely different thing than just "movies" so off topic and not really worth discussing anyway,  because yeah, what's your point?

[Erioch]

1 minute ago, Mark Kaine said:

Oh.  (maybe read what you post and and reply to before posting xD)

Maybe read through the list I posted.