A pirated copy of "The Expendables 3" is making waves online and many are worried that this will put a dent to the expected box office film's sales come opening weekend, while others are saying that it could surprisingly boost sales of the much-awaited 2014 film.
It's not just a blurry copy. It's a DVD-quality copy of the entire movie, and the pirated torrent has been leaked before the much-awaited movie with a powerhouse cast could be shown this August. The torrent leak for "The Expendables 3" was released last Wednesday and has since been downloaded endlessly.
According to IBTimes, it is rare for a film to be released before the showing date, and when it happens, it could "incur some serious losses". The movie showcases a powerhouse cast with Sylvester Stallone on the lead. IBTimes reports Stallone saying that the third part, which stars Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes, Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas, Jason Statham, and many other A-listers, is the best one yet.
According CNET, piracy is never a good thing, saying that studio films "rely on the current system to make back costs and turn a profit." Moreover, CNET continues by saying that "Downloading that product early out of pure convenience is not just illegal, but it's also doing nothing to help usher the film industry's business model toward a more economically sound and digitally-focused future."
However, some are arguing that in this case, piracy could put more people into theaters to watch the movie when it is released, says Variety. Variety quotes David Pierce from The Verge saying that "Leaking a month before its release might just be the best thing that ever happened to 'The Expendables 3'." This is accompanied by Pierce saying that the flawless movie is better viewed in the big screen, so "illicit copies floating around on torrent sites will only drive up ticket sales". Pierce has admittedly downloaded and watched the movie in advance.
In the same article, Variety reports Carnegie Mellon University researchers begging to disagree, as their research shows that movies that have been leaked before being shown on the big screen has lost 19% of box-office revenue when compared to those whose pirated copies were released the showing debut. Century Fox's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" faced a similar scenario back in 2009 when torrents of the movie surfaced on Megaupload.com. The website has long since been shut down. Fox came up with an estimate of 15 million who have downloaded "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", shares Computer World.
Computer World also reminds prospective-downloaders that in 2011, over 23,000 BitTorrent users were sued for downloading "The Expendables".
Lionsgate refuses to comment on the incident.
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