Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street has been named the most pirated film of 2014, closely followed by the Disney animated musical fantasy Frozen and the Oscar-winning space drama Gravity.
Scorsese’s black comedy, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as an unscrupulous trader who makes a fortune via morally dubious “penny stock” boiler rooms, was downloaded 30.04m times, according to piracy tracking firm Excipio. Frozen and Gravity were just behind with 29.92m and 29.36m downloads respectively.
Rounding out the top five were The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, with 27.63m downloads, and superhero sequel Thor: The Dark World, with 25.75m downloads.
Intriguingly, neither the year’s highest-grossing film worldwide, Transformers: Age of Extinction, nor the US box office’s biggest movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, made the top 10 for illegal downloads. But the potential damage to critically acclaimed, awards-season-friendly fare from piracy was clear. Steve McQueen’s Oscar-winning race drama 12 Years a Slave was downloaded 23.65m times in seventh place, despite taking just $187m at the global box office, the second lowest figure for films placing in the top 10.
Top 10 most pirated movies of 2014
1. The Wolf of Wall Street: 30.035m downloads
2. Frozen: 29.92m
3. Gravity: 29.36m
4. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: 27.63m
5. Thor: The Dark World: 25.75m
6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: 25.63m
7. The Legend of Hercules: 25.13m
8. X-Men: Days of Future Past: 24.38m
9. 12 Years a Slave: 23.65m
10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: 23.54m
