'Avatar' most pirated film of 2010
James Cameron's mega-blockbuster 'Avatar' has emerged as the most pirated film of the year, with 'Kick-Ass' and 'Inception' following close.
The multiple Oscar-winning 3D magic was downloaded from torrent websites 16,580,000 times, according to TorrentFreak, showing a 33 per cent increase in download activity from last year's top-pirated film, 'Star Trek', which was downloaded just under 11 million times.
The sci-fi epic grossed nearly USD 2.8 billion at the worldwide box office to become the highest-grossing movie ever. Cameron has frequently touted 3D filmmaking as the industry's best hope for combating piracy, but 3D glasses didn't hold back pirates from shattering all piracy records.
'Kick-Ass', distributed in the US by Lionsgate, took the second place, recording 11,400,000 downloads off of torrent websites and grossing a somewhat disappointing USD 48 million domestically, said the Hollywood Reporter.
'Inception' came third with 9,720,000 downloads. The Warner Bros film has been the top pirated film these past couple months and was the most-pirated film last week, ahead of its DVD launch.
With 9,490,000 downloads 'Shutter Island' and 'Iron Man 2' at 8,810,000 downloads rounded off the top five.
Best picture at the Academy Awards, 'The Hurt Locker', came in as the ninth most-pirated film with nearly 7 million downloads. It was the lowest-grossing film on the list, with just under USD 50 million at the worldwide box office.
