Piracy costs moviemakers US$2.7b
20 June 2006
Mainland piracy cost the movie industry US$2.7 billion last year, a study commissioned by the US-based Motion Picture Association shows. The US film industry incurred more than half of the losses, with the rest evenly split between association members and companies from Hong Kong and other Asian and European countries. The association called on the mainland to improve market access for films, claiming that pirates fill the gap when films are blocked from Chinese cinemas. The mainland only allows about 20 imported foreign films on a full revenue-sharing basis each year, but pirated DVDs of most films are widely available for about US$1. The study found 93% of discs on the mainland were counterfeit, down slightly from 95% in 2004.