""Star Wars Phantom Menace"" Found On Sale In Asia

A pristine theatrical print of the new prequel ""Star Wars: Episode I ñ The Phantom Menace,"" valued at $3,500, that was stolen earlier in the week has been recovered (see related stories in Todayís News and on May 26). The print was stolen over last weekend at the State Theatre in Menomonie, Wisconsin between showings Friday and Saturday. The entire 2 hour plus film, weighing more than 40 pounds, was stolen off the projectorís platter system. Theatre owner Nick LeGros said, ""In the 23 years Iíve been doing this, this is the first time Iíve had a film stolen."" The May 26 Todayís News story contained the following statement: ""With paranoia centered on the coming age of Digital Cinema due to the potential for hacked encryption codes, the feeling has always been that films in cans or on projectors or platter systems would unlikely be stolen due to the sheer bulk and weight, and the complications caused by having to break-in to a brick-and-mortar theatre. But then, this is not any ordinary film. Given that George Lucas has stated that no home video version would be released until after 2005, someone could make a lot of money, especially off-shore, by converting the movie and digital soundtrack (all three digital sound formats are present on the print) to videocassette, DVD, LaserDisc and especially Video CD, a popular format in China.""As it turns out, the Associated Press reports that just two days following the May 19 theatrical release of ""Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace"" pirated Video CDs of the picture, complete with a Chinese-language jacket, were widely available in shopping malls in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Macao for between $2.50 and $4.00, a fraction of the cost of movie tickets. The video pirates are proving to be a real ""menace"" in Asia with bootleg copies of the prequel widely available in several countries. The George Lucas prequel was early on targeted by the criminal underworld that operates the video and music piracy industry in Asia. Experts say that it is only a matter of days before bootleg ""Star Wars"" Video CDs show up in the Chinese mainland, the worldís largest market and voracious consumer of pirated U.S. films. The anti-piracy division of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) believes that at least four clandestine Video CD printing machines, each capable of producing 20,000 discs a day, are operating somewhere in the Asian region to manufacture the illegal copies. While the pristine print of ""Star Wars"" that was stolen from a movie theatre in Wisconsin would have been an excellent quality source from which to transfer and produce Video CDs, the MPAA says that pirates operating in the U.S. first used a digital video camcorder inside a theatre to capture the film, and then boarded airplanes for Hong Kong and other Asian capitals. Though color fidelity is washed out and audience noise and interference is prevalent on the bootleg discs, this is apparently not deterring customers from buying the two-disc Video CDs.While Asian authorities are said to be constantly monitoring the known black market in illegal VCDs, reportedly so far, they have had little success controlling the pirates, who appear to operate with impunity. The Hong Kong Customs division overseeing the control of intellectual property reports that undercover anti-piracy investigators have thus far found and raided 27 shops in two large Hong Kong computer markets selling the pirated version of ""Phantom Menace."" Many others are scattered all over the territory but authorities report that there are just too many of them to stop the pirates.Back in Todayís News dated February 17, 1999, the headlines read ""Titanic"" Officially Released As Video CD Boxed Limited Edition."" In that report we said:""Pirated VCDs are the principal means for the Chinese people to see American movies. China allows just 10 U.S.-made movies into its theatres a year. But China does not impose any limits on VCD or DVD imports. Further, movies shown in Chinese theatres are subject to censorship for political or sexual content, but not so on VCD or DVD. Reportedly, by the end of 1999, there will be 200 legitimate movies competing with the pirated versions, which vary in quality from very poor to acceptable dubs. But the legitimate discs will have to compete on price, with pirated copies ranging from $1 to $3 compared to $6 to $8 for an authorized version. Then too, there is the matter of timing with the legitimate version not released until 10 months or so after the theatre debut. To combat pirating, Fox is offering a discount on the authorized ëTitanicí to those who trade in their pirated copies. The studioís real interest is in building a market for DVDs. In 1998, almost half the 700,000 DVDs sold internationally were purchased in China. To succeed DVD players will have to drop in price substantially to compete with VCD players that now sell for $75. Estimates are that 30 to 40 million VCD players are already in Chinese households and pirated Hollywood movies account for at least 80 percent of the programming on those VCDs.""Fox to date has reportedly lost millions of dollars as a result of an estimated 3.5 million plus pirated copies of Video Compact Discs of Titanic which are selling for $2.00. Fox and other Hollywood studios have long ignored the VCD format, which is inferior in presentation quality to both DVD and LaserDisc. The VCD format is regarded as the poor cousin of digital video discs. The format, which preceded DVD, never took off in the U.S.""Now, spurred by the growing threat of bootleg VCDs, Hollywood studios can no longer afford to ignore the format. Warner Bros. was the first to commit to the format, releasing more than 60 titles in China. Walt Disneyís Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Seagramís PolyGram are right behind Warner, and Paramount, which supported the MPEG-1 video compact disc format in the U.S., is slated to release titles on VCD in China in the near future. Fox plans to release 30 more movies on VCD in China during 1999.""Perhaps once again, Fox will be forced into an earlier release of ""Star Wars: Episode I ñ The Phantom Menace"" on Video CD and at a substantial reduction in price to combat the pirating of the film. George Lucas has stated that the home video version of his film would not be released until after 2005, following the theatrical release of ""Episode III.""