Due to torrents, they can cancel the continuation of Zombieland

Screenwriter Zombieland Rhett Reese was shocked when he learned that more than a million people downloaded his film illegally on torrents. The Hollywood screenwriter, who had already composed the plot for the new horror film, said that such an “achievement” could very much prevent the continuation of the successful film from appearing in the world.

Yesterday we wrote about the creators of the film Ink , who thanked the pirates for promoting their film. ( . Approx Translation : Translation Habré )

Film Ink has been downloaded more than 400,000 times in the last week and ended up in fourth place in our weekly ranking of the most downloaded movies, and in which Zombielandtook a leading position.

The scriptwriter Zombieland Rhett Reese also kept track of our rating, and thus learned about the success of his film on the net. About this he left a post on his twitter:

“Now Zombieland is the most downloaded movie on torrents. Already over a million downloads and the figure continues to grow. ”

However, unlike the creators of Ink , Reese was not happy with this “achievement”, saying that such a situation could impede the filming of the sequel to Zombieland .

I'm sad. This casts doubt on the likelihood of Zombieland 2 .

Reese's comments are Hollywood's standard response. Allegedly because of the pirates, billions of dollars will go past the box office and this will hinder the filming of new films, such a gloomy prospect can often be heard from the scriptwriters. But is it true or just Hollywood fiction? Facts point to the second.

There is no accurate evidence that piracy is associated with a drop in box office receipts or a decrease in DVD sales. For example, The Dark Knight became the most downloaded movie on torrents in 2008, was sold on millions of DVDs, and its box office worldwide broke a billion dollar record. But what about Zombieland ?

According to information received from Hollywood, cinema is very successful at the box office of movie theaters. The release of the film for hire was noted by the following curious facts:

• Woody Harrelson's smashing career success
• Less than $ 24 million spent on film making
• The film raised $ 9.4 million on the first day of rental worldwide.
• And today, $ 84 million

Zombieland raised more than $ 60.8 million in 17 days, surpassing even the remake of Dawn of the Dead , and became the highest grossing zombie movie ever. Somehow this does not seem like a hindrance to filming the continuation of the film.

On the contrary, if the film became popular on torrents, then this means that it will succeed in cinemas. Now the rips of almost all films appear on the network, and if the film is not downloaded even from torrents, then this is a very bad sign.

But of course, Reese and the rest can continue to claim that they would have made more money if there had been no piracy. There is no 100% fact to refute this, but if you compare the ever-growing numbers of box office receipts and the increase in file downloads using P2P networks, then this will become, at least, a controversial statement. The same can be said about reducing the number of films made.

Already, many independent filmmakers have realized that torrents and the Internet can be a boon to the film industry. Instead of seeing this as a threat, Hollywood could go forward before it was too late.

PS: This is my first translation for Habr. I will be glad to hear your comments and suggestions.