Shanghaiist has compiled a report on Crazy Stone (疯狂石头), the low budget Warner Bros. film that is both generating buzz and doing very well at the box office, despite its Sichuan dialect dialogue. Excerpt:
Warner Bros. is taking an aggressive and (we believe) unique approach in trying to minimize the effect piracy has on the release. Could it actually be working?
Warner released the low-budget (US$400,000) Crazy Stone (疯狂石头) in Chinese theaters on June 30. Less than two weeks later, the studio released legit copies of Crazy Stone on DVD, and they are reportedly selling for as little as 10 kuai in DVD shops throughout China.
The heist comedy from 28-year-old writer/director Ning Hao … has become a surprise hit this year, earning US$1.5 million to date…
…Stories also said that somehow no black market DVDs of Crazy Stone were available during its first week of release (the real story here would be how they managed that). Bootleg DVDs are no doubt available now, what with perfect studio versions to copy from. We saw Crazy Stone at our local DVD shop yesterday for 7 kuai.
Considering that a Bit Torrent download of the whole movie has been available since July 12, and that pirate CDs are now available nationwide, one has to suspect that the real reason they managed to have a pirate-free opening week was that Warner did almost no marketing of the film, and there are no famous actors in it. Most pirate DVD gangsters probably took a listen to the Sichuanese dialogue, and decided that it would not sell, but now that there is enough buzz about the film, the pirate disks are everywhere.
Below is a trailer and music video for Crazy Stone, found via the Podcast Podium (播客宝典) blog.