THE EXPENDABLES 3 (Patrick Hughes, 2014)

[dude hallenbeck]

Producers Threaten Individual ‘Expendables 3′ Pirates With Legal Action
http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/expend ... 201307982/

Not likely. It would cost them millions to get 4 million individual people into court.

[Tom]

Producers Threaten Individual ‘Expendables 3′ Pirates With Legal Action
http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/expend ... 201307982/

Not likely. It would cost them millions to get 4 million individual people into court.

Yeah and trying to put that much blame on the pirates for the poor grosses is kind of pathetic. They were the ones wasting shed loads of cash on awful marketing and somewhere along the line they allowed a DVD quality screener to slip out a month before release, which is their own fault.

They might try and to get a few people in court to make an example, but suing everyone would be nigh on impossible and also do very little for their reputation, nor future marketability.

[Ringy]

Dolph and Kellan Lutz are to visit Japan on 27th Tokyo International Film Festival, Oct 23-31, 2014.
The details are sketchy
http://okmusic.jp/#!/news/53783

27th Tokyo international film festival official site
http://2014.tiff-jp.net/en/
Ex3
http://2014.tiff-jp.net/news/en/?p=7111

[Jox]

Not likely. It would cost them millions to get 4 million individual people into court.

Of course practically it's not possible (especially worldwide) and they won't actually "sue" them, but at least symbolically they can't sit around without doing or saying anything either. Like Tom says it's more to make an example and remind people it's illegal to download movies like this and in their rights to take action.

The company has taken the unusual step of pursuing individuals who downloaded the pirated copies of the movie, sending out legal letters asking for a settlement to holders of IP addresses in lieu of more substantial damages should they take cases to trial.

Lerner said that, after the movie was leaked before it opened, more than 10 million people illegally downloaded the action title. “That was 10 million people who stole the movie,” he said. “We want to go after those 10 million people.”

Lerner said that the intent isn’t just to collect losses, but to show that it is “not right to steal.”

“I want to protect our property and the thousands of people who made our movie,” he said, noting the impact that piracy has on jobs in the entertainment industry.

“The Expendables 3″ sputtered on its opening weekend, after a leak of a copy of the movie spread across the Internet three weeks before opening. Lionsgate, the movie’s distributor, successfully won a restraining order against six websites that had posted pirated copies of the movie.

But Lerner said that Millennium Films decided to go after individual downloaders, a more cumbersome process in which their legal team may have to subpoena ISPs for the identities of holders of various IP addresses.

Although major studios, through the MPAA, are not pursuing such a strategy in fighting piracy, independent producers have from time to time sought out individual downloaders, given the disproportionate impact that copyright infringement has on their business. Producers of “Dallas Buyers Club,” for instance, started pursuing illegal downloaders earlier this year and filed more than 100 lawsuits across the country.

http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/expend ... 201308942/

[Tom]

Maybe Avi Lerner should be more concerned with quality control and making the Expendables franchise better films. So much about his films seem half assed. It doesn't appear that he has any more or less concern on quality whether he's making a 1 million DTV, or an 80 million dollar Expendables film for the big screen.

Trying to sue 10 million internet users is just way overboard, pointless and won't amount to anything. It's a giant waste of time, and all I imagine down to Lerner worrying about how much is in his pockets. He'll lose more money pushing the lawsuits though. He should just be thankful that the worldwide gross is just about going to turn the third film into a success.

Piracy is a problem and it's not right, but this isn't the way to go about things. There's a danger that he simply alienates his potential audience for future films who may boycott Millennium films. It's an unfortunate consequence of how the internet and file sharing has developed over the years. It's incredibly easy to find sources to watch movies for free. Everyone is suffering it. But it's so widespread it's un-policable after the fact. More needs to be done about preventing the initial distribution.

They need to concentrate their efforts on finding the people leaking the DVD screeners. Cinemas need to better police the screens for people filming cam jobs too. But especially so with the leaked DVD quality films that make their way online, how hard is it to identify who leaked it? These films need to be screen marked (some are). Their needs to be a way to trace what appears online back to who had ownership of the original file or DVD screener. Lets not forget it's probably an absolute certainty that whoever leaked a DVD quality screener of Exp 3 must have been involved in the film, either in production, post, of through Lionsgate with distribution. How else does it get out? Someone paid to work on the film in some way has done this. Find them and sue their asses off and make sure they never work in the industry again. Then go after the pirate sites. All you have to do is google for them and hundreds would pop up on the first few pages.

You can't go after the individual downloaders, but they can certainly go after the hosts and distributors. It's far too easy for people to watch these pirated films. Make it much harder. If you also make it harder, fewer people will be able to download the films and thus it will be easier to track individual culprits and seek compensation. 10 million people? No chance.

Avi Lerners a bit of a clown to be honest.

[dude hallenbeck]

Not likely. It would cost them millions to get 4 million individual people into court.

Of course practically it's not possible (especially worldwide) and they won't actually "sue" them, but at least symbolically they can't sit around without doing or saying anything either. Like Tom says it's more to make an example and remind people it's illegal to download movies like this and in their rights to take action.

I just wish they concentrated on more way to legitimately damage piracy. Sure threatening to sue millions of teenagers is a good way too publicly save face, but it's frustrating because it wont stop anything.

[Jox]

Maybe Avi Lerner should be more concerned with quality control and making the Expendables franchise better films. So much about his films seem half assed. It doesn't appear that he has any more or less concern on quality whether he's making a 1 million DTV, or an 80 million dollar Expendables film for the big screen.

You know as much as I do from 20 years of Nu Image DTV (and the Dolph ones are rather on top of the pile if you count all the US SEALS, CYBORG COP and the likes) that the problem is he/they have no sense of taste and no clue (just like Cannon, unlike Carolco) even when they care about quality (except for a few exceptions).

There's a danger that he simply alienates his potential audience for future films who may boycott Millennium films.

Most people (and that's not cinephiles) have no idea who they are and certainly don't check out who produced the movie before watching it.

[Tom]

Maybe Avi Lerner should be more concerned with quality control and making the Expendables franchise better films. So much about his films seem half assed. It doesn't appear that he has any more or less concern on quality whether he's making a 1 million DTV, or an 80 million dollar Expendables film for the big screen.

You know as much as I do from 20 years of Nu Image DTV (and the Dolph ones are rather on top of the pile if you count all the US SEALS, CYBORG COP and the likes) that the problem is he/they have no sense of taste and no clue (just like Cannon, unlike Carolco) even when they care about quality (except for a few exceptions).

There's a danger that he simply alienates his potential audience for future films who may boycott Millennium films.

Most people (and that's not cinephiles) have no idea who they are and certainly don't check out who produced the movie before watching it.

You would think if Lerner was sensible he'd actually look back to the life cycle of Cannon as a big screen film producer. Their quality control was really poor. The succeeded in exploitation films for a time before audiences just got tired, by which time they were over-extending themselves financially.

In terms of Nu Image/Millennium they've been releasing theatrical films for around 10 years now, and actually now probably concentrate slightly more on their big screen films than their DTV's. But the quality is consistently poor. They can't rest on a handful of hits like Exp 1,2 and Olympus for too long. I think the third Expendables film is more a sign that audiences aren't interested in seeing another mediocre film after the first two.

That's going to hit them hard I think because Expendables is their James Bond, their Avengers. It's their big seller and their tentpole, and the domestic results were atrocious. But regardless of the piracy issue, it has been coming.

I give it five years and I think Millennium, if they're still around, will be back being a DTV company first and foremost. But if you peddle too much shit, which is essentially straight to video on a bigger scale, then it's inevitable.

[Jox]

You would think if Lerner was sensible he'd actually look back to the life cycle of Cannon as a big screen film producer. Their quality control was really poor. The succeeded in exploitation films for a time before audiences just got tired, by which time they were over-extending themselves financially.

What Lerner learned not do do like Cannon spending more money than they gross (and not just in the movies), Carolco did the same mistake spending money left and right...
(Just spoke with an in-house writer (who did rewrites on UNISOL and PENTATHLON) who had tons of anecdotes on Mario Kassar and how he would spent $150 million when he earned 100, threw million dollar parties and didn't even know how many people worked for him: the company was gone before CUTTHROAT ISLAND - but overall they had better taste and talents than Cannon - those days are way over by the way)

[Tom]

You would think if Lerner was sensible he'd actually look back to the life cycle of Cannon as a big screen film producer. Their quality control was really poor. The succeeded in exploitation films for a time before audiences just got tired, by which time they were over-extending themselves financially.

What Lerner learned not do do like Cannon spending more money than they gross (and not just in the movies), Carolco did the same mistake spending money left and right...
(Just spoke with an in-house writer (who did rewrites on UNISOL and PENTATHLON) who had tons of anecdotes on Mario Kassar and how he would spent $150 million when he earned 100, threw million dollar parties and didn't even know how many people worked for him: the company was gone before CUTTHROAT ISLAND - but overall they had better taste and talents than Cannon - those days are way over by the way)

I do miss the old days of Carolco, Cannon, Orion etc. That was always for me as a kid, to see one of those symbols coming up one screen at the start of a VHS.
Ha ha.

[ashleyej25]

I know this is late but I wish Dolph had more screen time. Loved the fight sequence between him and Jet Li in first one.

[Jox]

I guess he "used to". Even Statham and co got axed... I wish they had made a coherent movie with a plot that holds up and not an "excuse" for a movie - with characters that actually needs to be here of course.

Here's another missing bit

[Tom]

I just watched Men Of War and it's everything the Expendables films should have been.

[Ivan, Jr.]

I know this is late but I wish Dolph had more screen time. Loved the fight sequence between him and Jet Li in first one.

Hi Ash, welcome to the site! If you buy the "Director's Cut" DVD of The Expendables. there is an extra 10 minutes of the movie added. about 2 or 3 minutes more of Dolph including an extended version of the Dolph/Jet fight you like. Check it out!

[Jox]

Worldwide BO has now passed $199,962,787 (69M in China).


The German will release the DVD/BD under THE EXPENDABLES 3 - A MAN'S JOB (December 22):
http://www.splendid-film.de/ceemes//article/show/180270


(click to enlarge)