This story in today’s Variety seems to run counter to last week’s post about how studios often delay releasing movies overseas in an attempt to reduce piracy:
Russia and Ukraine aren’t the usual launching pads for Hollywood event pics, so it came as a surprise when Paramount and DreamWorks Animation decided to open 3-D toon “Monsters vs. Aliens” in those markets first.
Why would they do that? Wouldn’t that make it more likely to get bootlegged?
Ah, but wait:
In a precautionary move to ward off pirates, Paramount supplied only dubbed prints of “Monsters” to Russian and Ukrainian theaters.
Animation works well dubbed, and most crucially, a cam in Russian or Ukranian is not particularly useful worldwide.
