Leaving the ethics of it aside for a moment (though that doesn't apply as much in this case since I'd see it in theaters regardless of whether I saw a bootleg first), I wouldn't want to see a crappy bootleg version of STiD anyway. The score, the audio, the FX, and the cinematography/visuals were meant for a big screen surround sound presentation. It would take away from the experience and might negatively affect my opinion to see such a poor quality version.
It's going to be a bummer not being able to fully participate in discussions with people from other countries who have seen in when it goes wide release, but then, that's no different from how they must feel when they have to wait while the US gets the movies first, so that's fair. I chose to read the spoilers from the premieres this time though so I could at least understand the gist of the story and participate in the discussions to some degree.
I just don't understand the widely staggered release policy from the position of the studios, especially in this day and age when piracy is so rampant. I don't think it will have a huge impact on the box office or anything, but it might have some, and making the movie more likely to be bootlegged before its release in its largest single market doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
I assume it's partially for promotional purposes like wanting the top tier cast and crew to be able to make appearances at all the premieres and promote the film in local media, but it just seems counter-productive to me. And I'm not saying this just because the US is getting the film later, I think they should try and make the release dates as close together as possible everywhere.
