Bootleg DVDs of Haeundae surface overseas [KOREAN]

Despite Haeundae becoming the fifth Korean film ever to draw over 10 million viewers, CJ Entertainment and the Korean film industry aren't smiling any longer.

Haeundae has been a big success since its release in Korea but that success will most likely come to a sudden halt. With local box office earnings dwindling in recent years, Korean movie distributors have been relying on selling the import rights to overseas movie distributors for profit rather than box office sales. Barely a week after premiering in Chinese cinemas on August 25th, bootleg DVD copies were already available in many cities around China. What's worse is that the a copy of the DVD is selling for just 900 KRW (0.70 USD) and even comes with complete good quality Chinese subtitles.

This will most likely affect the box office earnings for Haeundae in China and will probably snowball to other countries, which has yet to show the movie.

The reason that such a good DVD bootleg copy of Haeundae is available is because of an event that occurred on the 29th of August in Korea. A DVD quality version of Haeundae was leaked online to a Korean file sharing website and it swiftly replicated itself, surfacing on over 140 file sharing websites. Although steps were taken by CJ Entertainment and the police to remove the copyrighted material, the damage had already been done as the file had been transferred several hundered thousand times in Korea and overseas thanks to Korea's high-speed broadband network.

Police believe that someone involved in the film's production or distribution had uploaded a copy online. CJ Entertainment has conceded defeat, since it's pointless even if they caught the culprit. The film's director Yoon Je Kyoon said, "Who would want to buy the import rights from us when it's readily everywhere in good quality? It's a huge loss to the Korean film industry because it's been some time since we had a box office hit."

source: coolsmurf