Disney lost $600m from Black Widow piracy; report

Disney's latest instalment in the Marvel franchise – Black Widow – was one of the 2021 movie blockbusters that was supposed to spearhead the recovery of an industry under massive pressure from the pandemic.

Delayed three times because of COVID-19, the film starring Scarlett Johansson eventually made its debut on June 29 last year, to largely positive reviews, and made Disney $379 million in gross box office receipts worldwide.

There was another $67 million globally from access via the company's Disney+ streaming service, but that is dwarfed by an estimated $600 million lost to pirating, according to a Deadline report.

The company’s decision to make it available in multiple languages via Disney+ on the same day as its cinema release made it easier to copy, according to Deadline, which says the movie has been pirated more than 20 million times.

Working on the assumption that each incident of pirating robs Disney of a $30 pay-per-view fee, the report arrives at its compact figure of $600 million.

In reality of course not all viewers of a pirated version would have paid out to see the film if the copies weren't available.

Nevertheless, that level of piracy likely still represents a sizeable loss to the company, and makes a case for returning to the pre-pandemic approach of releasing movies in cinemas exclusively before allowing online access.

According to piracy news website TorrentFreak, other movies that had a simultaneous cinema and steaming release and topped piracy charts included Mortal Kombat, Godzilla vs Kong, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Free Guy.