All hail the pirate slayer!
One of the hot topics on this site has always been the importance of maintaining a premium moviegoing experience. Even if that doesn’t always amount to superior sight, sound and seats, I think we’ll all agree that helpful employees is a big part of reaching that next level.
Talk of the quality of the average theater employee typically elicits scorn in these parts so I thought you’d appreciate this Allied News story about a kid truly earning his paycheck at his local theater. Christopher Payne carefully observed a possible movie pirate and used all means necessary to take him down. How about that?
For Marquee Cinemas employee Christopher Payne, being nicknamed the “pirate slayer” by co-workers has little to do with one-eyed, peg-legged treasure hunters and more to do with stopping what experts call “the biggest threat to the motion picture industry.”Payne interrupted the illegal pirating of the movie “Pride” in May — a federal crime — helped recover the camcorder used, and also received a $500 reward along the way. Not bad for the 16-year-old Woodrow Wilson High School junior.
More than the billions of dollars lost by the growing trend, it’s the theater owners that suffer the most with this practice. While studios have other sources of revenue to tuck them in at night, theater owners have nothing if no one shows up.
The fact that society is moving in a direction where people feel no guilt in this is pretty sad. In the online world has the media is not as tangible as it is in on a screen or in a DVD case. With that, people don’t feel like they’re really stealing anything. And of course, you’re not nearly as much at risk of being caught. Doesn’t really make it ok though.
If anything can stop or at least slow down movie piracy, it remains to be seen. With quicker computer connections and more movies on the market, the future looks bleak. That is unless Christopher Paynes start popping in all our local theaters.
(Thanks to H@r@ld for providing the photo.)
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I fear that with the current onslaught of illegal computer download of movies, the high price of tickets and the general irritation that can come from visiting the local multiplex, before you know it, most or all films may innevitably go straight to DVD. I fear that by the time my little boy becomes a grandfather, the movie theater itself may become extinct.
That will be tragic.