PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN PIRATED TO NO EFFECT
Movie leaks and extortion have a history, but they don’t often hurt the box office
Early tracking numbers for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales have movie-industry forecasters expecting it to dominate the box office on this, its opening weekend. That will make it the latest Hollywood film to survive a piracy scare basically unscathed. Taking a look back at the history of leaked films, there seem to be some patterns: While studios take piracy incredibly seriously, it is most likely the result of an inside job (in the case of the fifth Pirates film, it is believed to have been stolen from a production company involved in the film). The authorities do tend to eventually find the sticky fingers behind it. And lastly, looking back to the history of leaked films, it really doesn’t seem to have too much of an effect on the box office. The new Pirates chapter is no exception on the last point. It was reportedly held for ransom by a hacker group threatening to leak it online unless they were paid off. Disney refused to co-operate and as the release date drew near this week, there was no clear sign that the film had leaked, and it’s now expected to bring in about $80 million in North America this weekend. Most experts say that these kind of hacks are likely going to grow more common. Here’s a brief history of recent entertainment hacks and what happened.
Star Wars attacked by clones: In 2002, geeks were surprised to read a review on aint-it-cool-news.com of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones a full two months before it was released. The film eventually leaked online a week before its release, and was described at the time as being “lower than VHS” quality. Shea O’Brien Foley, who worked at Lucasfilm while Attack of the Clones was being made, was found to have been the source of the leak. Studio officials recovered several items on his computers, including the entire library of Star Wars sound effects, storyboards and a script, which were had an estimated range in value from $450,000 to $17 million (U.S.). Foley pleaded guilty to several charges and was sentenced to a year in prison. The film was the third highest-grossing film of the year making, $649 million worldwide.
Hulk smashed: In 2003, an unfinished version of Ang Lee’s Hulk starring Eric Bana was shown to an ad agency. One of its employees got the film into the hands of Kerry Gonzalez, who uploaded it. Thanks to a digital tag in the copy, the studio tracked down the culprit, but not before the unfinished print sparked criticism of the lacklustre special effects. Gonzalez pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months home confinement, three years probation and approximately $7,000 in fines. Hulk went on to a worldwide box office of $254 million.
The Matrix Reloaded gets outfoxed: A high-quality version of the second film in the Wachowskis’ sciencefiction trilogy leaked a day before the film opened worldwide. Analysis of digital embed codes in the film reportedly led authorities to charge six employees at Fox and to subsequently break up two notorious bootlegging rings, reportedly on the eve of their release of Superman Returns. Keanu Reeves and his other Reloaded cohorts still managed to pull in $742 million worldwide.
Wolverine, before the final cut: In 2009, excitement was high for the release of the fan-favourite Canadian mutant’s first solo movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. An unfinished version, a.k.a. a workprint, of the film leaked about a month before the film was due to be released. It was months old, and didn’t have many of the film’s final special effects. Gilber- to Sanchez, 47, said he bought the film from a retail stand in New York and he uploaded it to file-sharing site Megaupload. Fox reportedly got it pulled down within a day, but the film spread to other sites like Internet wildfire. Roger Friedman, a reporter for a Fox News site, downloaded the film and wrote a review of the leaked version, which promptly got him fired. Sanchez claimed he was a scapegoat but was sentenced to a year in prison. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, despite many bad reviews, still managed to gross $373 million worldwide.
Sony gets royally hacked: In 2014, hot on the heels of The Fappening — the colloquial term given to an online flood of nude images of celebrities, taken from Apple’s iCloud — Sony was hit by one of the largest cybercrimes ever perpetrated against an entertainment company. While it included unreleased versions of several films, including Annie, Mr. Turner and Still Alice, most of the headlines surrounded the embarrassing details including executive emails, salary information and other personal information. A hacker group called the Guardians of Peace, which U.S. officials believe to be sponsored by North Korea, took credit. The motive was apparently The Interview, a Seth Rogen comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The film’s release was curtailed; it appeared in theatres for one day, and then was released on video-ondemand services. The ramifications of this hack are still being felt, as North Korea has faced sanctions for it despite denying responsibility. It is hard to peg a number to Sony’s damages, but the company did budget $15 million in 2015 to deal with the ongoing fallout.
The Dark Overlord’s ransoms: In 2017, both Netflix and Disney are facing a hacker known as the Dark Overlord. Earlier this year, the hacker went to Netflix threatening to release season five of Orange in the New Black early. Netflix refused to pay and the show appeared online early. The hackers have reportedly also threatened to release Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in 20minute chunks online unless Disney paid $80,000. Instead, the studio is working with authorities to find the perpetrators.