According to TorrentFreak.com, Project X was the most pirated film of 2012. Second, third, and fourth places on the list belong to Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Avengers, respectively. The popularity in pirating of Project X is a bit surprising in that it was critically panned at the box office – coasting at 28% on Rottentomatoes – and not all that well received by average viewers either – rating 6.6 on IMDB, which means that if Project X were a math test, it would receive a D.
One justification offered comes from Mike Bracken, who, writing for Movies.com, suggests “it makes sense that this film topped the list. It’s an R-rated comedy marketed toward teens, many of whom couldn’t get into a theater to see it because they weren’t of age. Left with no other alternative, they hit the torrent sites.” This is an interesting point, but I’m not sure how hard ushers crack down on the sale of tickets to rated-R movies. Perhaps the identification checks are harsher than when I was under seventeen, but there seems to be no paucity of young teenagers in the rated-R movies I’ve seen as of late. (A prime example would be the theater in which I saw Django Unchained. Judging by the audience, someone unfamiliar with Tarantino movies might have thought it was a family film akin to Roots.)
So, I think this piracy stems from other reasons.
First, the price of movie tickets has risen over the last few years. Granted, a good share of tickets are now priced higher to accommodate those looking for 3-D or IMAX experiences, but, according to the Huffington Post, movie ticket prices have reached an all-time high, “having ballooned to an average of $8.12 in the second quarter of 2012, which is up from the previous high of $8.06 in the second quarter of 2011.” Now, 2011 was not a banner year for theaters. As noted in a January 2012 blurb from the Los Angeles Times, “year-end figures indicated that receipts in the United States and Canada dropped about 3% compared with 2010 to $10.2 billion.” I don’t think this is necessarily a criticism of the films from that year – though there weren’t many great ones – but rather an indicator a recession hangover. The lack of expendable money kept people home.
In the same vein, I think this lack of expendable income encouraged people to pirate in 2012, particularly a film like Project X, one that wouldn’t be necessarily enhanced by seeing it in a movie theater. What I mean to suggest is that films like The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, or Mission: Impossible all have the potential to be enhanced by the theater experience. The energetic build to certain films in popular franchises combined with anticipated awesomeness of special effects and visuals are more likely to draw folks to the theater. Films like The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises are also staples in popular culture discussions; they are part of other film sequences; and, they are films that people want to be the first to see to stay ahead of the curve. In contrast, a film like Project X looks like it’s ripped from the far more popular Hangover — or even the first few moments of Old School — but with an unknown cast, crude camera work, and an immature script, so seeing it isn’t nearly as crucial – in a popular sense – or made better by a giant theater screen.
Admittedly, the films I’ve placed against Project X follow it in sequence on the list of most pirated. However, the number of downloads is misleading in that the estimated downloads (8.5m Mission, 8.2m Dark Knight, 8.1 Avengers) is minimal compared to the number of people who contributed to the world wide gross of the movies ($700m, $1billion, $1.5billion, respectively while X generated only $100million). In effect, Mission: Impossible, the lowest grossing film of the three, generated nearly seven times the amount of money as Project X but had fewer illegal downloads. Taking the average ticket price of $8.12, we can estimate that about 85million people saw Mission: Impossible in theaters — ten times more than downloaded the film illegally — while only 12 million people viewed Project X in a theater, suggesting that there were a higher percentage of people choosing to download X rather than see it in the theater, whereas a more substantial number of people chose to see Mission Impossible et. al in the theater.
It’s also important to remember that $8.12 is merely an average on a sliding scale. Prices in major metropolises are higher. For example, the average ticket in New York City runs $13.50. As someone who lives in New York City, I can attest that the least expensive ticket at a popular theater is a $7 matinee. What I mean to suggest here is that viewers in densely populated cities are paying twice the national average for a movie ticket, so their downloading of a film is by far a less expensive venture on a weekend. This is particularly relevant to parents looking treat their children to a movie. Granted – hopefully for many reasons – these parents are not screening Project X for their children, but illegally providing the ever-popular Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, or Mission: Impossible is not out of the realm of possibility. The same choice to download might also come from residents of thinly populated areas wherein the nearest theater is twenty to thirty miles away and necessitates gas money in addition to capital for tickets and snacks.
Something else to consider is that viewers might be more discerning when it comes to parting with the average $8.12 for a film. In a sense, they are demanding higher quality entertainment – be it visual or artistic – for their dollar. This is also certainly connected to the recent recession, but it also challenges studios to invest in quality, not simple tent-pole films guaranteed to draw millions. A film like Twilight would be an exception to this rule regarding quality, but this film is also part of a world-wide vampire phenomenon. Regardless of the fact this this craze in inexplicable, the fervor over the franchise explains the massive box office gross ($712million) and the minimal number of illegal downloads (6.7million). More people chose to get their Twilight fix in a theater – simultaneously staying ahead of the teenybopper, pop culture curve – rather than see Project X in its autonomous, cliché glory.
While I can’t, in the end, condone piracy or encourage it, it could very well create stronger films – the same way in which music has been improved through the advent of the now-defunct Napster, or the current Spotify and iTunes. By allowing consumers to pick and choose the songs that they wish to purchase – as opposed to forcing them to buy an entire album for that one catchy song – artists were impelled to create albums with consistent quality throughout. Films might follow the same suit in response to piracy. Studios need to draw people in and give them a reason to sit in the theater, lest viewers prefer to wait a month to catch the film through Netflix or on Amazon for $4.99. Piracy levels the playing field and, at least with the downloading popularity of Project X, suggests that some films are better enjoyed with minimal quality through a buffering Internet feed – and not as the result of a $10 ticket.
