Ah, but we're the wealthy end of the market, and the trouble is really big in music. In Mexico, half of the artists -- and name brand artists of long duration, like "The Three" have been dropped by their labels due to declining sales. The marketing spin is that the pirates are better responding to the market. Let me know when pirates launch artists. John Willkie -----Original Message----- From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Kon Wilms Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 8:21 AM To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [opendtv] US box office 'beats $1bn record' All those losses to internet piracy must really be hurting! So bad in fact that profit is up 14% from last year, and a whopping 37% from 2001. Cheers Kon -- snip http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3869137.stm US box office takings passed the $1bn (£545m) mark for the first time in June, led by the success of the third Harry Potter film, a survey indicated. The North American box office took $1.03bn (£562m) during June, Hollywood Reporter found - a 14% increase on June 2003's previous monthly record. Takings were boosted by blockbusters including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Shrek 2. Spider-Man 2, which opened in the US on 1 July, also boosted monthly takings. New releases The third Harry Potter film topped the North American box office for the month by a wide margin, taking $217.2m (£118m). During June, Shrek 2 took $125.7m (£68.6m) of its $402.3m (£219.7m) box office gross to date, while disaster film The Day After Tomorrow took $76.9m (£42m). The Shrek sequel and The Day After Tomorrow were the only films in June's US box office chart top 10 that were not new releases during that month. If accurate, the June record would beat the previous high of $906.6m (£494m) achieved last year, when Disney's animated film Finding Nemo became a cinema hit. The box office tally for June 2004 is 37% higher than the same period in 2001. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.