2011 draws close and end of the year top ten lists are popping up on the sphere. You’ve got the highest grossers, the best reviewed… how about the most pirated? THR (by way of TorrentFreak) has named the ten with this dubious honor. Take a look. Do any of the “winners” surprise you?
- Avatar (16,580,000 torrents)
- Kick-Ass (11,400,000 torrents)
- Inception (9,720,000 torrents)
- Shutter Island (9,490,000 torrents)
- Iron Man 2 (8,810,000 torrents)
- Clash of the Titans (8,040,000 torrents)
- Green Zone (7,730,000 torrents)
- Sherlock Holmes (7,160,000 torrents)
- The Hurt Locker (6,850,000 torrents)
- Salt (6,700,000 torrents)
Avatar’s inclusion is maybe a little ironic considering that Cameron’s big idea was that a 3D Imax narrative flick would counter piracy since it’d be an experience you’d absolutely have to watch it in a theater. Then again, there’s a lot debate about whether torrents actually feed ticket and home video sales, and Avatar did gross enough to probably fund a small country, so who knows? Maybe it actually benefited from this.
Myself, I’m not much of a stats guy. I’ve never torrented, but I don’t have as strong an opinion about it as I once did. The floodgates seem to be permanently open, I feel.
However, seeing Kick-Ass on here makes me wonder if that flick would’ve made a lot more money in theaters (in addition to Blu-Ray, yes) if the percentage who’d downloaded it on a whim had gone the old fashioned route of “discovering” whether they liked it or not. It seems like the same people griping about studios not taking any chances on riskier projects are the same ones torrenting the ones that do take chances.
Either way, LA’s Anti-Piracy Task Force has just released a press release to Deadline stating that their Operation Chimney Sweep has made a ton of arrests with their bootlegging raids… so you better watch out!
for all we know step it up in 3d or whatever is the most pirated film of 2010, i hate these kind of list especially when they don't factor in or try to count other ways, as for people complaining about pirating, it doesn't hurt those companies, people who have been buying dvds since they came out will continue to buy dvds and believe it or not a lot of pirates DO buy, i am not justifying pirating but don't act like pirating is destroying the industry because it isn't, people said the same thing about hte music industry and look how well cds are selling not to mention music via itunes/amazon.
edit- also about this article and the kick-ass comment no it wouldn't of made that much more money i hate when people try to blame piracy on failed movies.
Inception makes for great repeat viewings so maybe that's part of the reason why it's so high on the list.
BTW can people stop complaining about Scott Pilgrim now ? I've held a view since August that piracy is not the reason that movie babombed at the box-office.
It's cringe worthy references like the one I made above that scared off a lot of people. Gamers can be a pretentious bunch.
Piracy will always be a convenient scapegoat for lack of talent.
3D's future & legacy will depend on how well others use the technology but it's out of Cameron's hands now. He proved his point with Avatar and now it's up to Hollywood to step up.
What I would like to see is the break down of 3D ticket sales and 2D sales for Avatar and compare them to post Avatar 3D releases.
It just passed for mobile devices, actually. Phones will be the first to experience the future of the internet.
So if you're anti-piracy, you'll be glad.
Downside to slowing down piracy? You'll be paying for website packages like you would premium cable channels and pay for priority bandwidth throttling.
Hmm...
Tom I hope you were slapped for that pun.