In this article, MUSO’s data insights team highlights some of the trends observed in MUSO’s July film piracy audience data.
Black Widow was the most popular film title in July and accounted for 27% of all piracy amongst the top 10 titles.
Unlicensed streaming was the most popular viewing method for the top titles, with A Quiet Place Part II having 91.3% of its consumption via unlicensed streaming websites.
Space Jam: A New Legacy is the 4th most popular title with piracy audiences and saw the largest demand from North and South America.
Space Jam: A New Legacy, global demand, torrents & streams, July 2021. Data from MUSO.com
This new release also sparked renewed interest in the original Space Jam film from 1996, with a 1591% increase when comparing July 2021 to June 2021 data, it is the 79th most popular film title in MUSO’s July data.
Space Jam: A New Legacy and The Boss Baby: Family Business are contributing to an 80% increased in demand for the animation genre when comparing July to June 2021.
Piracy demand by genre, torrents & streams, July 2021. Data from MUSO.com
The Tomorrow War is the second most popular title in MUSO’s July data with over 57% of piracy for the title measured within seven days of its initial SVoD release.
This continues the trend observed with titles released straight to SVoD; a high piracy spike that occurs within the first week of the release.
The Tomorrow War, first 90 days, torrents & streams. Data from MUSO.com
This trend can be seen when we compare the first 90 days of two popular titles, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) which had a theatrical window and Godzilla vs Kong (2021) which was available on SVoD 7 days after its first theatrical release.
Spider-Man: Far From Home, first 90 days, torrents & streams. Data from MUSO.com
The piracy in the first 75 days for Spider-Man: Far From Home was a low-quality cam-rip and it wasn’t until its SVoD / HQ release that MUSO measured the largest spike in piracy.
Conversely Godzilla Vs Kong was released theatrically in some territories 7 days before it was available in US cinemas and online at HBO Max on 31 March 2021. On that day MUSO measured its highest one day spike with over 3m downloads and illegal streams. 44 % of the first 90-day piracy happened within 14 days of its HBO Max release.
Global box-office data for Spider-Man: Far From Home shows that takings were almost 2.5 times higher than the global box-office revenue for Godzilla Vs Kong. This poses the question whether the lack of an HQ pirated version of Spider-Man: Far From Home for the first 75 days after release, drove more customers and therefore box-office revenue for the title.
Day-and-date is an important issue for the film industry and MUSO’s audience data provides valuable insight into the consequences of different release strategies.
MUSO’s piracy data measures the global consumption of over 165,000 films and TV titles. To find out more about how MUSO data is being used to drive marketing, content acquisition, commissioning and licensing please contact the team at hello@muso.com
MUSO is a data company that provides the most complete and trusted view of unlicensed media consumption and global piracy demand. MUSO’s unrivalled dataset measures a vast high intent audience that is not influenced by licensing restriction or platform bias. Whether protecting IP or building winning content strategies, MUSO helps companies make better decisions that drive performance, ROI and value.