Good movies tend to be the ones that are pirated the most. And there in lies the irony. If a movie’s bad, people won’t pirate it and it won’t hurt their sales. Only the good ones are hurt by illegal downloads. Here’s a list of good movies that lost money due to piracy.
The Incredible Hulk
This 2008 movie was the second attempt by Marvel to bring Hulk to the big screens in the 21st century. Not well received at first, The Incredible Hulk has since warmed up to MCU fans. Edward Norton rocked as Bruce Banner and The Incredible Hulk is now seen as an underrated cult classic. Sadly, the movie only did marginally better than its 2003 predecessor. Having made only 263 million dollars at the box office, Marvel Studios lost interest in the Hulk franchise. Perhaps the primary factor was that the movie was illegally pirated and downloaded for more than 14 million times!!
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
It was a dream come true for all DC fans. After the debacle of Joss Whedon’s Justice League, we finally got to see the true Snyder Cut in all its glory on the March of 2021. But the digital only release of the movie was also a double edged sword. Digital releases generally tend to give the cyber pirates an edge and there are umpteen number of ways to pirate a movie being released on a streaming platform. Zack Snyder’s Justice League made so much money but could have made a lot more had it not been pirated for around 10 million times. Maybe the chunk of money Warner Brothers and HBO Max lost was the missing section needed to convince the studio to restore the Snyder-Verse?
The Departed
Perhaps Martin Scorsese‘s finest work, 2006’s The Departed was a crime drama to end all crime dramas. With an absolute firepower of a cast, The Departed ruled the Box Office when it was released, earning around 300 million dollars globally. The movie conquered the Oscars that year too with best picture and Best Director. But the movie did lose a sizable amount of money to new age digital piracy. The fact that even in 2006, when the internet was still in its infancy, the movie was pirated for more than 14 million times speaks a lot.
The Hangover
This comedy movie was raunchy and surprisingly engaging. The Hangover swooped in in the year 2009 and the world would never be the same again. it also introduced to the world the force of nature that is Zach Galifianakis. The story of a bachelor party gone terribly wrong earned more than 500 million dollars worldwide. The movie was illegally downloaded about 17 million times, even more perhaps. The Director of the movie said it hurt their sales quite a bit.
The Dark Knight
There are a few movies that demand respect. they demand you to some to the theaters and watch them in all their glory. Because movies like them need to be respected and honored. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight was one such movie that came way back in 2008. It was one of the final performances of Heath Ledger as the Joker, a role that won him a posthumous Oscar award. One of the highest grossing movies ever made, The Dark Knight has been downloaded for about 20 million times illegally.
Inception
If it’s a Christopher Nolan film, there is a high chance every third person in your friend circle has watched a pirated copy of one his movies at least once. Inception is probably Nolan’s greatest work as a Director. So it stands to reason to believe that a Nolan masterpiece like Inception would be illegally downloaded millions of times. But part of the reason many people illegally downloaded the movie was to watch the movie again so that they can try to understand it this time. That’s the magic of Christopher Nolan right there!! the movie has a record of being pirated for more than 18 million times.
