A high-quality bootleg of Spider-Man: Brand New Day was viewed by millions of people on X before it was removed, making it the second major Hollywood film to leak on the platform within a week after Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was also uploaded in full.
A full copy of the Sony and Marvel Studios film was uploaded by an X, formerly Twitter, account at 6.05am Pacific time on Friday, the day of its theatrical release, according to Variety. The post remained online for at least seven hours, reaching 5.9 million accounts, receiving more than 143,000 likes and being reshared more than 10,000 times before it was taken down.
During that time, copies of the film were reposted by other users, although most were removed shortly afterwards as Disney and Sony appeared to issue copyright takedown requests. Users who tried to view some of the reposted clips were later met with the message: “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner”.
The Independent has reached out to Sony for comment.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who previously helmed Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the film follows Peter four years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, living anonymously after Doctor Strange’s memory-wiping spell erased the world’s knowledge of his identity. As Spider-Man, he continues protecting New York while investigating a new threat as his powers begin to evolve in unexpected ways.
Alongside Holland, the film stars Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, and Mark Ruffalo.
Less than a week ago, Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s Greek epic The Odyssey was also leaked in full on the social media platform. The video amassed 2.1 million views before it was removed and replaced with a takedown notice.
Universal Pictures, the film’s studio, has since vowed to “pursue all appropriate remedies to protect our content and intellectual property rights.”
“We became aware of the unauthorised posting of the film and immediately initiated takedown protocols,” the studio told Variety in a statement. “We take copyright infringement seriously.”
Despite the widespread piracy, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has enjoyed a record-breaking start at the box office. The film took $72m in preview screenings, the highest preview total in history, and ahead of Avengers: Endgame’s previous record of $60m.
It went on to gross $355m in the US and Canada and $572m internationally, giving it a $927m global opening weekend – the second biggest opening weekend in box office history, behind Avengers: Endgame’s $1.22bn debut.
Brand New Day also opened to excellent critic ratings, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey giving the film four stars in her review. She wrote that it is “not only the best of the MCU takes on the character, but it’s also flat out the best Spider-Man film since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2”.
She added that Sink was “excellent”, admitting that she couldn’t say more about her role “without giving the game away”.
