![]() ![]() Both of them operate on the basis of having a limited catalogue of films and TV available at any given time they can't keep everything online or they'd end paying far more for rights than they could afford. Popcorn Time blows a huge hole in the Netflix/Lovefilm model. It's much worse than torrents because it's so much easier to use, and what's more, being coded into innumerable languages by opportunistic coders. Popcorn Time shoots that out of the water – the very existence of the service makes it much harder for anyone to calculate the long-term value of a film, or sell film rights at all. Part of the reason Popcorn Time is such a threat is the international nature of the service: there's no more carving up of rights by territory, no more doing a deal in every nation. Most people don't realise, but a movie's box office return is only a fraction of the value it can generate indeed, many famous failures – notably the 1963 mega-flop Cleopatra – have actually been generating a steady profit year after year for decades (it broke even in 1986), mostly thanks to selling international rights. The rise of legal streaming service like Netflix seemed like a godsend – here was a way to make cash out of the back catalogue, and beat piracy at the same time. Hammered by falling DVD revenue, studios need a new way to consistently make money from old films. Make no mistake, legal streaming is vital to the movie business. It's easy to forget how important this ease of use is: 91 per cent of EU citizens haven't illegally downloaded anything in the last year, partly because the blocking of sites like Pirate Bay means it's become harder, and partly because legal downloading methods like Netflix and Lovefilm are becoming more common. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. ![]()
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