ADVERTISEMENT

Three Aussie titles among most pirated indie films

The Sapphires, Absolute Deception and 100 Bloody Acres are among the 100 most pirated independent films, according to a new study.

CEG TEK International tracked BitTorrent peer-to- peer file sharing networks that are trafficking in films produced or represented by members of the American Film Market.

The report found the average daily P2P download demand by BitTorrent users of the 100 most pirated movies was nearly 1 million globally.

The Beverly Hills-based firm used proprietary detection software which enabled it to track activity without participating in peer-to-peer networks.

The most popular title was Elysium with an average monthly demand of 4.8 million globally and 487,800 in the US, followed by Side Effects (1.4 million, 105,720), 2 Guns, The World’s End, Red 2, Safe Haven, Empire State, 21 and Over, Escape Plan and Blood Of Redemption.

Wayne Blair's The Sapphires ranked at No. 46 with 123,000 globally and 18,720 in the US. Absolute Deception, an action thriller directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, was at No. 87 with 64,380 and 9,540. Sony released the title on DVD, PPV and download-to-own in the US and sold it to the Lifetime Movie Network.

The Cairnes’ brothers horror/comedy 100 Bloody Acres ranked at No. 95 with 57,870 and 19,080. Some months ago the producer, Cyan Films’ Julie Ryan, hired Adelaide-based company Convergen to shut down 125 sites which had been illegally streaming the film. In August Convergen estimated the film had been downloaded at least 35,000 times.

Reacting to CEG TEK’s figures, Ryan tells IF, “From what I understand, this list is just BitTorrent sites and we can't actually take those down. We can take down streaming sites though and we are just about to do another sweep of those sites as it looks like we are popping up in Russia again.

“When you look at the top 10 it's amazing that Hollywood isn't all over this… look at how much revenue they are losing. Maybe they are trying… it's hard to know.”