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To Little Surprise, Superhero Films Were the Most Pirated Movies of 2016

Deadpool-Drawing-Dancing

Look, I get it. Sometimes international distribution can be really slow. Movie tickets are stupidly expensive most of the time. Maybe it’s a film you wouldn’t have seen otherwise or a film you won’t give money to on principle. We’re not endorsing piracy, because those who can should absolutely support the content and creators they love–but I get it.

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TorrentFreak took a look at the most downloaded movies of 2016 on BitTorrent and found that superhero movies dominated the list by far, with Deadpool taking the top slot. Coming in at second is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, followed by Captain America: Civil WarStar Wars: The Force Awakens, X-Men: Apocalypse, Warcraft, Independence Day: Resurgence, Suicide Squad, Finding Dory, and The Revenant. On the television side, Game of Thrones held its ground for the fifth year as the most pirated series.

It’s not too far off from the 2015 list, which included titles like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, Max Max, and Interstellar, which was said to have nearly 47 million downloads. 2014, similarly, was full of genre faves but 2016 is the most superhero-heavy by far. Considering how many actors on this year’s top-grossing list were in these movies, we can probably anticipate a similar pattern next year.

The majority of these films did well at the box office even with piracy, Warcraft and Independence Day: Resurgence being exceptions (somewhat, Warcraft did favorably internationally), which studies generally confirm. What did you watch illegally this year?

(via Comic Book Resources, Image via 20th Century Fox)

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