Reel Piracy: Study Says U.S. Box Office Not Impacted by BitTorrent

By Rob Scott
February 13, 2012

A new study by researchers from Wellesley College and the University of Missouri, “Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales,” suggests that there is minimal (if any) loss of U.S. box office sales due to BitTorrent pirating.
However, international piracy is another issue, due largely to the lack of legal options.
“More importantly, the report revealed that movie studios hold the power to curb piracy by decreasing international box office release windows,” reports Digital Trends.
The study highlights three key problems for movie studios: 1) “There is a shortage of international theaters;” 2) “The complexity of organizing promotional appearances for the film’s actors adds to the delay;” and 3) “Action and science fiction genres exhibit the highest supply of online pirated movies.”
“Consumers in the U.S. who would choose between the box office and piracy choose the box office (and the remaining U.S. pirates had valuations lower than the ticket price) but that international consumers who would consider both options choose piracy due to a lack of legal availability,” suggest the researchers. “If piracy displaced box office sales in the U.S., we would have expected the slope of the returns profile to shift more significantly as BitTorrent became more widely adopted.”

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