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Safeguarding Harry Potter
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November 16, 2001: 10:18 a.m. ET
Logistics tricks used to protect the magic of the film.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Harry Potter tricks aren't only on the screen. Several logistical ones were used to make sure the movie prints arrived safely at movie theaters.
Why the tricks? Well, piracy is a real problem for the movie industry, robbing it of about $3 billion a year, according to Motion Picture Association estimates. Part of that cost comes through people taking video recorders into movie debuts and generating "movie of the movie" knock-offs sold on the street. But some pirates can go more high-tech and reproduce a higher-quality knock-off, particularly if they get a hold of an original print of the film.
So what tricks were used? Well, the film prints were moved to the 3,672 theaters in unmarked containers. The black, waterproof containers only showed origin and destination. Inside, the individual reels were labeled with "pseudo" movie titles.
If that wasn't enough, not all the reels for the movie were in the same container. In fact, the transport outfits in charge of the getting the film to theaters, Danzas AEI Intercontinental and Entertainment Transportation Specialists, staggered shipments over several days so that the entire film wouldn't be on the same plane or truck.
The strategy added significantly to costs and workload, the companies said. "It added at least 10 percent more to the cost of doing this," said Mona Raub, vice president of customer service for Danzas.
But apparently that's less than what a bootleg Harry would cost. 
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