Posted on 11/14/2007 8:04:04 AM PST by YourAdHere
American Gangster, the highly anticipated Denzel Washington-Russell Crowe film about former New York City drug lord Frank Lucas, pulled in over $43.6 million at the box office opening weekend, according to figures compiled movie monitoring services.
While those figures are enough money to have most any movie producer crowing over box office receipts, Hollywood and the general public can only imagine how much more the film might have made if it hadn't been so heavily bootlegged —— and in this case as far as two weeks in advance of the film's opening.
Across the nation, in Washington, New York, Houston, Memphis, Los Angeles, Baltimore and other cities, people report a fast traffic in bogus copies of the movie, so much so that even some bootleggers were surprised.
"I can't keep up with the demand," said Li'l Ray," as he sold his wares from his perch in front of a Rite Aid Pharmacy on U Street in Washington.
In city after city, people report of illegal copies of the film available from the street corners to classrooms.
"I am a school teacher, and my students have tried to repeatedly sell me the bootleg copy of the movie," said Gerard Harris, 51, who teaches music for the Memphis public schools.
In Baltimore, Armando Horsey, an architect, has seen similar demand.
"Ten out of 15 people [I know] have purchased or seen a copy of the bootleg," Horsey, 37, said.
Usually films take a shortcut from the studio to the streets because of eager bootleggers pushing product to make a buck. That apparently hasn't necessarily been the case with American Gangster.
Instead, it was eager purchasers for illegal product that drove the demand, some bootleggers said.
"I just do CD's, but everybody kept asking if I had that 'Gangster' joint," said Mike, as he dealt copies of the film on Florida Avenue in northwest Washington. "So, I had to jump on that. That's money to be made."
Aside from the pre-release publicity, one of the things that also seems to be driving the demand is the quality of the illegal copies that are hitting the streets, people said.
Horsey said his friends 'were very surprised by the quality' of the movie. Tina Wood of Charles County, Md., said she's hearing the same thing.
"From what I heard, they said the quality of it is just like being at the movies for half the price," Wood, an event planner.said. One Baltimore resident said her friend usually goes to see the original version of the film even if she's seen an illegal copy in advance.
She didn't with American Gangster, the friend reported, because the bootleg copy was so good.
Often, bootleg movies are obtained by filming the movie with a video camera on a tripod at the local theater. Consequently, the movies are often very dark, shaky or have random shadows floating through them.
Satira Bushell, 31, of Arlington, Va., believes that the edition that has purchasers so excited isn't the "normal" bootleg.
She points out that prior to a movie being released, the cast members and others who worked on the film often are given an advance copy. The illegal copy that people are buying could have been made from one of those copies, she speculated.
"Who knows where the high quality version came from," she said. "Money talks, and it only takes 10 seconds to make a duplicate."
Ohaji Abdallah, a 32-year-old Los Angeles architect, said he is not surprised by the number of advanced copies floating around his city's streets.
"Out here bootlegging is pretty bad," said Abdallah, whose brother-in-law in Houston also got a copy of American Gangster two weeks before the release date. "We can usually get movies weeks ahead of time. So, that's not really surprising out here."Malaika Adero, an editor for a major book publisher in New York City, said she's watched as the interest in illegal copies, like those of American Gangster, have grown.
"I think people buy bootlegs because they are more convenient," Adero said. "You can sit at home and watch the movie."
But back in Memphis, Harris thinks it's a lot simpler than that.
"I think that people feel they are being over priced for everything and ripped off," he said. "So, whenever they feel like they can get over, they will."
Oh the irony.
Just what black America needs: another gangster as a role model.
don’t pimp my gangsta movie? yep. You could cut the irony with a switchblade.
Lil’ Freeper? Are you Li’l Ray too? : ) Yes, the story is incredibly ironic. I love that.
Nope.
I’ll probably wait to see this flick ‘till it comes out on TV.
Damn, how are the Chinese supposed to make a buck now?
I make a point of never watching any Denzel Washington movie.
He comes over here tells us to buy his products and goes to africa and tells them what bunch of racists and evil America is.
DW gets nothing from me.
First I have heard of that, got any articles I can check out??
That movie was boring. There was nothing in it that hadn’t been done in 200 other urban gangster movies.
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