Well this sucks:
Asserting that our neighbors to the north have become major suppliers of pirated pics around the globe, Warner Bros. is taking the unprecedented step of canceling all promotional and word of mouth screenings there until the Canadian government makes it illegal to take camcorders into theaters.
According to Warners, more than 70% of all pirated Warners titles released over the past 18 months originated in Canada.
“Within the first week of a film’s release, you can almost be certain that somewhere out there a Canadian copy will show up,” said Darcy Antonellis, Warner Bros. senior VP of worldwide antipiracy operations.
Policy, coming just as the busy summer box office season gets under way, will take effect beginning with “Ocean’s Thirteen,” which bows June 7. Ban also means that Canadian auds won’t get a sneak peak at “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which bows in July. Warners Bros. Pictures Canada will still hold press screenings for credentialed media.
Thank goodness for that last sentence.
But wait a minute — about 95% of the Warner advance screenings I have been to in the last dozen years were promo screenings (e.g. screenings attended by people who won tickets via radio contests, usually at night or on weekends) and not press screenings (i.e. screenings attended by professional critics only, usually in the morning). Does this mean Warner plans to replace promo screenings with press screenings? Or does this mean credentialed media will see only a handful of Warner movies in advance?
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