Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Variety’s Top 20 Most Pirated Movies of 2014

Variety released a list on Sunday of the top 20 most pirated movies in 2014. “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Frozen” were the two most pirated movies at roughly 30 million illegal downloads each.
The total number of illegal downloads from this list is almost half a billion pirated copies in 2014 alone. The rest of the list looks like this:
1. “The Wolf of Wall Street”: 30.035 million (Paramount, Dec. 25, 2013)
2. “Frozen”: 29.919 million (Disney, Nov. 27, 2013)
3. “RoboCop”*: 29.879 million (MGM, Feb. 12, 2014; and Orion, July 17, 1987)
4. “Gravity”: 29.357 million (Warner Bros., Oct. 4, 2013)
5. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”: 27.627 million (Warner Bros., Dec. 13, 2013)
6. “Thor: The Dark World”: 25.749 million (Disney/Marvel, Nov. 8, 2013)
7. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”: 25.628 million (Disney/Marvel, April 4, 2014)
8. “The Legend of Hercules”: 25.137 million (Summit, Jan. 10, 2014)
9. “X-Men: Days of Future Past”: 24.380 million (20th Century Fox, May 23, 2014)
10. “12 Years a Slave”: 23.653 million (Fox Searchlight, Oct. 18, 2013)
11. “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”: 23.543 million (Lionsgate, Nov. 22, 2013)
12. “American Hustle”: 23.143 million (Sony/Columbia, Dec. 13, 2013)
13. “300: Rise of an Empire”: 23.096 million (Warner Bros., March 7, 2014)
14. “Transformers: Age of Extinction”: 21.65 million (Paramount, June 27, 2014)
15. “Godzilla”: 20.956 million (Warner Bros., May 16, 2014)
16. “Noah”: 20.334 million (Paramount, March 28, 2014)
17. “Divergent”: 20.312 million (Lionsgate, March 21, 2014)
18. “Edge of Tomorrow”: 20.299 million (Warner Bros., June 6, 2014)
19. “Captain Phillips”: 19.817 million (Sony/Columbia, Oct. 11, 2013)
20. “Lone Survivor”: 19.130 million (Universal, Dec. 25, 2013)
* Combines data for both 1987 and 2014 versions.
Take note that “The Expendables 3” does not appear on the list despite a massive pre-release piracy that occurred this summer. (See here and here for more information.) This list shows the size and scope of the problem with pirated movies, which is just a fraction of all pirated content, including music and other content.
More tools, such as WheretoWatch.com and Rightscorp, continue to emerge in efforts to diminish piracy and protect intellectual property rights. But everyone needs to do more because the protection of intellectual property is essential for encouraging more innovation, creative content, and economic growth.