The Most Pirated Movies of 2009

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via slashfilm.com

/Film (via ChartsBin) shows us the top pirate movies of 2009. This chart shows some interesting insights into the movie piracy industry. The more buzz a movie has, the more likely it will be pirated. You have to also note though, that the top pirated movies had either an amazingly high gross ticket sales for the year or were insanely buzzed while playing in virtually no theaters.

I haven't even heard of Rocknrolla or State of Play, both of which were extremely limited in theatre numbers. Both of those films are intriguing, and I'll have to Netflix them.

In my opinion, movie pirates resort to piracy for one of three reasons:

  1. They are total fanboys and have already seen the movie 4 times in the theatre anyways
  2. The movie isn't PLAYING anywhere.
  3. They weren't going to pay to see it anyways so the studio can't lose money it wasn't going to get in the first place.
There is plenty of argument about how much piracy hurts the movie and television industry, but I think of it like this. Though I believe piracy is inherently bad, denying a viewer an opportunity to see a film is worse. True filmmakers make films to be seen.  Even with terrible trailers, and zero promotion, and no playing venues, good piracy buzz on a quality movie can still lead to good real ticket and dvd sales later.

 

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