Film piracy, unfortunately, is a staple of the industry these days. Whilst financially unhealthy for film studios, distributors and exhibitors alike, pirated films are a good indication of not only what's popular, but of which recent films had an impact on people in the sense of "I'm intrigued, but I'm not willing to throw down money on this." With 2015 now over, the statistics for the 10 most pirated films of last year have been released (which should send a cold shudder up the spines of anyone who thinks they're entirely free to download with impunity) and they paint an intriguing picture. You'll see a a healthy mix of expected entries and actual surprises (with certain 2014 films continuing to be pirated well into the following year), and whether these ten entries are indicative of consumer tastes, popularity or the sign of a product with good word-of-mouth is up for debate. It's easy for filmmakers to blame piracy for their movie's profit-based shortcomings (in certain cases), but the reality is that if said film wasn't "free", a significant portion of those people who torrent probably wouldn't take the time to watch it anyway. What we can analyse with this list perhaps isn't the effect that piracy has on the industry, but rather which films were popular, intriguing or diverting enough to warrant thousands of savvy net users spending their time downloading and watching bad-quality copies of major motion pictures. Presumably with foreign subtitles or distracting watermarks.
Cinephile since 1993, aged 4, when he saw his very first film in the cinema - Jurassic Park - which is also evidence of damn fine parenting. World champion at Six Degrees of Separation. Lender of DVDs to cheap mates. Connoisseur of Marvel Comics and its Cinematic Universe.
