Piracy is a real problem in every digital industry. Movies, series, games, software and many other digital products that sometimes take years to make become pirated at some point. This has barely changed since the Internet existed. Now, with the strengthening of streaming services, movies and series become pirated as soon as they appear. The Warner Brothers, who brought all their films to HBO Max at the same time as cinemas in 2021, were aware of this risk, and the data shows exactly that.
According to an independent technology company called Akamai, the most pirated movie in the past year was Godzilla vs Kong. The top 10 of the list is as follows:
- Godzilla vs. Godzilla. Kong
- Zack Snyder;s Justice League
- Black Widow
- F9
- Mortal Kombat
- The Suicide Squad
- Cruella
- Wonder Woman 1984
- Raya and the Last Dragon
- Jungle Cruise
Looking at the list, disney’s first MCU film this year, Black Widow, was shown on Disney+ at the same time as the cinemas. But godzilla at the top of the list, etc. It’s also worth remembering that Kong generated about $470 million at the box office. Disney recently announced a loss of around $600 million due to the pirate download of Black Widow, after which the Warner Brothers’ losses could be horrendous.
On the show side of things, you shouldn’t get into it at all because it’s a lot more complicated. People are left with little way to watch shows that come out of streaming services that aren’t in most countries. Still, it’s gratifying to see that Dune, which was released at the same time as HBO Max, didn’t make the list, which means there’s still hope for cinemas. Let’s see how soon new movies start coming to streaming services when it’s like this.
