Rachel_Sandford
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Following the release of Netflix's Most Rented Movies, TorrentFreak just released the list of 10 Most Pirated Films Online. The revelations? One, that pirating doesn't seem to affect ticket sales, and two, that book lovers may not be download lovers.
James Cameron's 2009 film, Avatar is the #1 most downloaded film of all time. It also topped the box office charts. The Dark Knight came in second, Transformers is in third, while Leonardo DiCaprio enjoys being in two of the films listed: Inception and The Departed, both of which overlap with Netflix's most rented list.
According to TorrentFreak, they compiled weekly and yearly listings of the most popular movies downloaded on BitTorrent going as far back as 2006. They also admit that the chart they used for box office sales disregards ticket price inflation.
These parameters could explain why Avatar overtook Titanic (or why Titanic wasn't even mentioned) as the top grossing movie and why The Lord of the Rings is missing. None of the Harry Potter films made it to the list either, despite out-earning some of the movies on the list, like Transformers or Inception. One theory suggests that book lovers aren't download lovers, preferring to watch the movie in the theatre or read other books.
Studying the list, however, it seems that pirating movies doesn’t really affect ticket sales.
Perhaps downloading movies online isn't about being cheap, but it's about preference. Netflix subscribers are steadily increasing, “killing BiTorrent in the US” and pirated downloads are decreasing. So it seems that if you offer people a high quality alternative that will let them watch movies on their computers or tablets, they'll pay for it after all!
James Cameron's 2009 film, Avatar is the #1 most downloaded film of all time. It also topped the box office charts. The Dark Knight came in second, Transformers is in third, while Leonardo DiCaprio enjoys being in two of the films listed: Inception and The Departed, both of which overlap with Netflix's most rented list.
According to TorrentFreak, they compiled weekly and yearly listings of the most popular movies downloaded on BitTorrent going as far back as 2006. They also admit that the chart they used for box office sales disregards ticket price inflation.
These parameters could explain why Avatar overtook Titanic (or why Titanic wasn't even mentioned) as the top grossing movie and why The Lord of the Rings is missing. None of the Harry Potter films made it to the list either, despite out-earning some of the movies on the list, like Transformers or Inception. One theory suggests that book lovers aren't download lovers, preferring to watch the movie in the theatre or read other books.
Studying the list, however, it seems that pirating movies doesn’t really affect ticket sales.
| 1 Avatar (2009) | 21 million downloads | $2,782,275,172 (ticket sales) |
| 2 The Dark Knight (2008) | 19 million downloads | $1,001,921,825 (ticket sales) |
| 3 Transformers (2007) | 19 million downloads | $709,709,780 (ticket sales) |
| 4 Inception (2010) | 18 million downloads | $825,408,570 (ticket sales) |
| 5 The Hangover (2009) | 17 million downloads | $467,483,912 (ticket sales) |
| 6 Star Trek (2008) | 16 million downloads | $385,680,446 (ticket sales) |
| 7 Kick-Ass (2010) | 15 million downloads | $96,188,903 (ticket sales) |
| 8 The Departed (2006) | 14 million downloads | $289,847,354 (ticket sales) |
| 9 The Incredible Hulk (2008) | 14 million downloads | $263,427,551 (ticket sales) |
| 10 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007) | 14 million downloads | $963,420,425 (ticket sales) |
Perhaps downloading movies online isn't about being cheap, but it's about preference. Netflix subscribers are steadily increasing, “killing BiTorrent in the US” and pirated downloads are decreasing. So it seems that if you offer people a high quality alternative that will let them watch movies on their computers or tablets, they'll pay for it after all!
