‘Project X’ Beats ‘Avengers’, ‘Dark Knight Rises’ As 2012’s Most Pirated Film
Next to the $1B+ grosses forThe AvengersandThe Dark Knight Rises,Project X’s respectable $100M worldwide take seems like spare change. But there is one arena in which theTodd Phillips-produced raunchfest is king: illegal downloads.
Project Xhas emerged as the single most pirated film of 2012 — as well as the lowest grossing of the top 10, which also includes both of the aforementioned box office smashes. Read the full list after the jump.
1.Project X
2.Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
3.The Dark Knight Rises
4.The Avengers
5.Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
6.21 Jump Street
7.The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
8.The Dictator
9.Ice Age: Continental Drift
10.The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1
Overall, it’s a pretty high-grossing bunch.TDKRandThe Avengersare both among this year’s top 10 at the box office, whileGhost Protocol,A Game of Shadows, andBreaking Dawn Part 1ranked among last year’s biggest earners. Popular is popular, apparently, whether it’s at the multiplex or in the shadier areas of the Internet.
All of which makesProject X’s dubious “victory” a little surprising. One plausible explanation is that all the kids who couldn’t see the R-rated feature in theaters pirated it instead. If that’s the case, it probably didn’t cut into the film’s box office potential by much, but it could take away from its home video prospects.
Whatever the reason forProject X’s dominance, it has to be a bummer for the filmmakers and stars.Project Xmade $54M in the U.S.; assuming anaverageof $7.92 per ticket, that means about 7 million Americans saw it. (It made another $46M overseas.) In comparison, it was downloaded almost 9 million times worldwide. Imagine how much more money the film would’ve made if they had figured out a way to charge for those illegal copies.
Interestingly,Project Xis also one of the worst-reviewed of the bunch, with a 28% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. OnlyThe Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1fared worse, with 24%. The films are otherwise a reasonably well-regarded bunch, with an RT average of 65.1%.
