The concept of indie and art house productions is that they are "independent" (indie) from the studios like 20th Century Fox, Universal or paramount. That means they're not subject to be changed by the corporate bosses and board members running the studios. They can and will intervene and say "Cut out these scenes" or "Rewrite the script", "There's too much profanity" etc. etc. etc. An indie production does not have to worry about that, and as such is a much more free artform. The creators are free to tell the story they want to. So if a studio decided to make these films, they'd have an immense budget and as such would not be as sensitive to piracy. But at the same time, the free art form and storytelling would be lost.

Word of mouth is a good thing and I understand your logic, but what you're describing is a utopia. Pirates aren't providing better marketing because it's not like a pirate would download a film, watch it and then write to his friends he just pirated a film and they should go buy it. It doesn't work like that, pirates don't become ambassadors for movies overnight. Especially not with indie films, would that they did. Piracy might help create enough buzz online for the movie to go viral and make people go watch it, but that usually don't happen because pirates aren't different from other people. They want to watch Avengers and Captain America too, and rarely download indie films. But the (let's say) 1000 pirates that do download an indie film, have a much, much larger economical impact on the indie productions than the (let's say) 10.000 pirates that download studio productions have on the studios.

It should also be noted that legally buying or streaming a movie helps the production companies understand what people want. By legally buying or streaming a film, you are saying YES, WE WANT MORE INDIE MOVIES. You are creating physical, financial evidence that independent film has value. This, above all else, does not go unnoticed for the production companies.

The independent film world is a fragile ecosystem. It allows for unique experiences and challenging stories to be told by bold filmmakers in adventurous and often unproven ways. Studio films do not take the same risks. But this adventurousness, this ability to surprise us, is why we love indie movies. By supporting this ecosystem, we are supporting the possibility of original, rewarding experiences that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Surely there is a movie out there, a movie made independently, purely for the love of cinema that you will want to see, and that will mean something to you. It's up to you to support that movie.

It's possible that movie hasn't been released yet. It may not even have been made yet. Maybe that movie is actually a movie that you, yourself, are going to make some day. This is why it is so important that we support indie movies. The ecosystem is shrinking.

That movie you are waiting for, the one that will sweep you off your feet, the one that will blow your mind, or even that movie you are planning on making yourself, may not have a place to be seen, or may never even get made if we continue hurting the value of independent films.

Films are more than just momentary entertainment; they are also works of art. Most of the time, filmmakers have devoted significant portions of their lives to tell these stories. Encourage risky filmmaking. Don't let the ecosystem die.

I wrote a pretty long response to a comment by darthedd77 that you should read, because my response to this is the same as it was to his comment :)

And by the way, I'm not sure what you mean by Transformers "blows" in the box office. If you're saying it didn't make any money - I have to tell you, you could not be more wrong. The latest Transformers movie made over 200 million dollars in the US alone.

I can't tell if you're joking, but yeah pretty much.

Correct. But that's a symptom of an unhealthy economy. The studios can't afford to take chances on smaller productions anymore. They have to focus on big productions they know for sure will generate some serious money. So as opposed to 10-15 years ago where a single movie could focus on a much smaller audience and still make enough money to pay for its production, the studios now have to cater to a much, much bigger audience. That is why we see these huge blockbusters and franchises like The Expendables or every movie ever produced by Marvel. They are guaranteed success and money, simply due to the production value. They hire the best actors, the best directors and producers because the studios know that is what people are looking for in a movie. If you had the choice between watching a movie with the same plot, but one was directed by Steven Spielberg and the other by someone you had never heard about, you'd obviously go with Steven Spielberg.

And that's all well and good, if that's the kind of movies you like. It just means a couple of things for the industry. First of all the entire indie-segment will slowly vanish along with art films. They don't have the same production value, but tend to focus more on the art of films - deep, meaningful storytelling and beautiful acting. The type of films that remind us this is an art form. They don't have the same budget, and as such are more susceptible to piracy. The Expendables 3, with a budget of 100 million dollars, won't even notice that people are pirating it because it has generated so much cash. Smaller films will notice. As a result we will, in the future, see more large scale, action packed, CGI blockbusters, and fewer small arthouse and indie productions.

Secondly it means that a lot of young up-and-coming actors, producers, directors, editors, writers etc. etc. etc. will be without work. The studios will have to give the jobs to people the know for sure will generate success. They can't take chances on unknown names in the business, because when they make a movie they have to be 100 % sure the income will pay for production. Of course they will have to give some chances once in a while, but they needles eye is getting smaller, if you know what I mean.

So yeah, you said it yourself. A movie that goes +$100 million in the opening weekend does not have to worry about piracy. Personally I don't think that's a good thing.

This is true. It also means the money that could have gone into the movie industry doesn't, resulting in fewer high quality productions.

So why not just write that?

Can someone explain what bae is?

And make the rest of hugelol a *** infested shithole? I think not sir.