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More on Spidey security...
May 4, 2007

Sony's super-security plan apparently worked.

John Horn reports in the L.A. Times today that the studio appears to have blocked the release of any illegal copies before the film landed in theaters, although one preem-goer was nabbed in Paris and another in Madrid for illicitly recording in the theaters.

This weekend, of course--with Spidey swinging across 11,000 U.S. screens--all bets are off, even as the security sweeps on.

Sony has asked theaters in Canada to patrol their Spider-Man 3 auditoriums with night-vision goggles and the studio is also splitting up film cans sent to theaters in piracy havens such as China, Russia, Poland and Hungary, according to the Times. (It was news to me that as much as 40% of the world's camcorded bootlegs originate in Canada.)

Largest Canadian exhibitor Cineplex Entertainment will check purses and backpacks of moviegoers and have employees and guards patrol its auditoriums. But, said the chain's president to the Times, "it's a hard one. People don't like it. They are coming to the movies to escape reality."

Such, apparently, is the price to bask in the glow of a superhero these days.

Posted by Marcy Magiera on May 4, 2007 | Comments (0)