Martin Freeman is pleased that so many pirated the first “Hobbit” film last year.
Credit: Warner Bros. Picutres
Hollywood studios may sometimes seem overly concerned about piracy, but then you see the numbers. According to TorrentFreak, the most illegally downloaded film of 2013 was “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” It was stolen 8,400,000 times, which is about 300,000 times more than the second most pirated film of last year, “Django Unchained.”
On the bright side, that there’s so much demand for the film must be a kind of comfort to filmmaker Peter Jackson. His “Hobbit” films —a naked attempt to recreate the past, fading glories of his “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy —have made money but have been lambasted by many critics. Moreover, the second installment, “The Desolation of Smaug,” has been dominating the box office, but it’s making less than its predecessor. In contrast, each entry in “The Lord of the Rings” made more, even when the last one was a butt-wounding 3 1/2 hours.
The top ten list also includes “Fast and Furious 6,” “Iron Man 3,” “Silver Linings Playbook” (!!) and “World War Z,” which continues to attract viewers despite being the most boring zombie movie ever made. The most curious one on the list is “Gangster Squad,” which was dumped in theaters last January and only cracked the $100 million mark worldwide. Perhaps people prefer their braindead odes to vigilantism in the comfort of their homes.
The full list can be seen here.
