MPAA piracy claims amount to $2,000 per pirate

MPAA piracy claims amount to $2,000 per pirate
Based on the latest MPAA claims, every person in the US who downloaded a movie illegally last year kept an average of $2,000 out of the economy.

That figure is based on claims from an infographic they released recently, suggesting illegal downloading in the US cost removed $58 billion from the economy.



The most obvious problem with their figures is the claim that money is being removed from the economy. In order for that to be true, money which would otherwise have been spent on movies can not be spent on anything else.

So why $2,000? It all comes down to simple math.

First they start with a figure of 29 million Americans downloading illegally.

Then they give a total figure of $58 billion lost.

$58 billion divided by 29 million people comes out to $2,000 per person. If you assume DVDs cost an average of $10 each, that means each one would have purchased 200 discs last year.

Just to put the total in perspective, in 2010 total box office receipts for the US and Canada combined totaled $10.6 billion. DVD & Blu-ray sales and rental combined with online video accounted for another $18.8 billion.

Even if you assume no one in Canada goes to the movies, that would mean the movie industry in America should have made twice as much money last year.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that MPAA piracy numbers are ridiculous, but when you put it into perspective it's still pretty stunning to see just how big their numbers are.

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 7 Sep 2011 15:59
Tags
piracy MPAA
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  • 20 comments
  • Semperfipal

    This is utter BS from the MPAA! How do they know 29 million people download illegally?? Those who do pirate movies, software, etc., from the net probably wouldn't buy the product anyway. I know I rent all of my movies from Netflix or stream from their website and Hulu Plus. Why the hell would I buy a DVD or a Blu-Ray or pirate it? I'm not in love with any particular movie to buy the god damn thing, let alone 200 of them in a year. I guess those who do download these things should feel guilty and cough up $$ to the MPAA, that way they will sleep better at night.............NOT!! "F" the MPAA and rest of the greedy studios!

    7.9.2011 16:16 #1

  • deak91

    OK first wtf!!!!!! from what i found out this is how many movies that were released in theaters last year could be wrong so $2000 divided by $15 dollars (rounded up) is (rounded up)134 movies that each of us should of gone to the theater see ...or(at $30) bought 66 blu ray movies ...or(at $20) 100 dvd movies now be honest look through the list and post how many movies peaked your interest that you would have gone to the theater to see and how many you bought on blu-ray or DVD i'm guessing there is about 10 movies that peaked your interest to see in a theater and 20 that peaked your interest from a combined theater viewing that you wanted to buy and just wanting to buy because of a trailer only

    "1 A Minute"
    "127 Hours"
    "8: Mormon Proposition"
    "The A-Team"
    "Accidents Happen"
    "Acts Of Violence"
    "After Dark Horrorfest 4"
    "After The Cup"
    "Agora"

    "Ahead Of Time"
    "Ajami"
    "Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland"
    "Alpah & Omega"
    "All Good Things"
    "The American"
    "Animal Kingdom"
    "Another Year"
    "As Good As Dead"
    "Avatar Extended Edition"
    "The Back Up Plan"

    "Barney's Version"
    "Barry Munday"
    "Battle"
    "Beetle Queen"
    "Best Worst Movie"
    "Birdemic"
    "Bitch Slap"
    "Biutiful"
    "Black Swan"
    "Black Waters"
    "Blood Into Wine"
    "Blue Valentine"
    "The Book Of Eli"
    "Bounty Hunter"
    "Bran Nue Dae"
    "Breaking Upwards"
    "Breathless: 50th Ann."
    "Brookyln's Finest"
    "Brotherhood"
    "Buried"
    "Burlesque"
    "Cairo Time"
    "Calvin Marshall"
    "Case 39"
    "Ca$h"

    "Casino Jack"
    "Casino Jack And The United States Of Money"
    "Catfish"
    "Cats & Dogs 2"
    "Celine: The Movie"
    "Centurion"
    "Charlie St. Cloud"
    "Chloe"
    "The Chronicles Of Narnia 3"
    "City Island"
    "The City Of Your Final Destination"
    "Clash Of The Titans 2010"
    "Clear Blue Tuesday"

    "Client 9"
    "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky"
    "Colin Fitz Lives"
    "The Complete Metropolis"
    "The Concert"
    "Conviction"
    "Cop Out"
    "Countdown To Zero"

    "Country Strong"
    "The Crazies"
    "Crazy"
    "Crazy On The Outside"
    "Creation"
    "Cropsey"
    "Cyrus"
    "Date Night"

    "Daybreakers"
    "Dear John"
    "Deadfall Trail"
    "Death At A Funeral"
    "Defendor"
    "Despicable Me"
    "Devil"
    "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid"
    "Dinner For Schmucks"
    "Disappearance Of Alice Creed"
    "Due Date"
    "Easy A"
    "Eat Pray Love"
    "Eclipse"
    "The Eclipse"
    "Edge Of Darkness"
    "Exit Through The Gift Shop"
    "Expecting Mary"
    "The Expendables"
    "Extraordinary Measures"
    "Fair Game"
    "Farewell"
    "Faster"
    "The Fighter"
    "A Film Unfinished"
    "Finding Bliss"
    "Flipped"
    "Floored"

    "For Colored Girls"
    "Frankie & Alice"
    "Freakonomics"
    "The Freebie"
    "From Paris With Love"
    "Fruit Fly"
    "Furry Vengeance"
    "Get Him To The Greek"
    "Get Low"
    "The Ghost Writer"
    "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"
    "The Girl Who Played With Fire"
    "Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest"
    "Godspeed"
    "Going The Distance"
    "The Good Heart"
    "The Graves"
    "Grease Sing-A-Long"
    "Great Directors"
    "The Greatest"
    "Greenberg"
    "Green Zone"
    "Grown Ups"
    "Gulliver's Travels"
    "Handsome Harry"
    "Happiness Runs"
    "Happy Tears"
    "Happy Thank You More Please"
    "Harry Brown"
    "Harry Potter 7: Part 1"
    "Hatchet 2"
    "Heartbreaker"

    "Hereafter"
    "Here And There"
    "Hey Watch This"
    "Holy Rollers"
    "Hot Tub Time Machine"
    "How Do You Know"
    "Howl"
    "How To Train Your Dragon"
    "Hubble 3D"
    "I Am Comic"
    "I Am Love"

    "The Illusionist"
    "I Love You Phillip Morris"
    "I'm Still Here"
    "I Spit On Your Grave"
    "Inception"
    "In My Sleep"
    "Inside Job"
    "Iron Man 2"
    "Is It Just Me?"
    "It's Kind Of A Funny Story"
    "Jackass 3 in 3D"
    "Jack Goes Boating"

    "Jim"
    "Joan Rivers"
    "John Rabe"
    "Jolene"
    "Jonah Hex"
    "The Joneses"
    "Just Wright"
    "Kalamity"
    "The Karate Kid 2010"
    "Kick Ass"
    "The Kids Are All Right"
    "The Killer Inside Me"
    "Killers"
    "The Killing Jar"
    "Kings Of The Evening"
    "The King's Speech"
    "Kisses"
    "Kites"
    "Knight & Day"
    "La Mission"
    "Lake Mungo"
    "The Last Airbender"
    "The Last Exorcism"
    "The Last Play At Shea"

    "The Last Rites Of Ransom Pride"
    "The Last Song"
    "Last Train Home"
    "The Law"

    "Leap Year"
    "Leaving"
    "Lebanon"
    "Legendary"
    "The Legend Of Pale Male"
    "Legend Of The Guardians"
    "Legion"
    "Let Me In"
    "Letters To God"
    "Letters To Juliet"
    "Life As We Know It"
    "Life During Wartime"
    "Lightkeepers"
    "Like Dandelion Dust"
    "Little Fockers"
    "Living In Emergency"
    "The Living Wake"
    "Looking For Eric"
    "The Losers"
    "Lottery Ticket"
    "Louis: A Silent Film"
    "Love And Other Drugs"
    "Lovely, Still"
    "Love Ranch"
    "Mao's Last Dancer"
    "MacGruber"
    "Machete"
    "Made In Dagenham"
    "Marmaduke"
    "MegaMind"
    "Mesrine: Killer Instinct"
    "Mesrine: Public Enemy #1"
    "Micmacs"
    "Middle Men"
    "Miral"
    "The Misfortunates"
    "Monsters"
    "Morning Glory"
    "Mother & Child"
    "Multiple Sarcasms"
    "My Boyfriend's Girlfriend"
    "My Dog Tulip"
    "My Name Is Khan"
    "My Soul To Take 3D"

    "My Suicide"
    "Nanny McPhee 2"
    "Neil Young: Trunk Show"
    "Nenette"
    "Never Let Me Go"
    "The Next Three Days"
    "A Nightmare On Elm Street 2010"
    "Nowhere Boy"

    "The Nutcracker 3D"
    "Oceans"
    "Ondine"
    "OSS 117: Lost In Rio"
    "The Other Guys"
    "The Oxford Murders"
    "Our Family Wedding"
    "Paper Man"
    "Paranormal Activity 2"
    "Patrik Age 1.5"
    "Percy Jackson"
    "The Perfect Game"
    "Phish 3D"
    "Piranha 3D"
    "Please Give"
    "Predators"
    "Prince Of Broadway"
    "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time"
    "Princess Kaiulani"
    "Pyaar Impossible"

    "Queen Of The Lot"
    "Rabbit Hole"

    "Race To Nowhere"
    "Racing Dreams"
    "Ramona & Beezus"

    "Rare Exports"
    "Rec 2"
    "Ready, Set, Bag"
    "Red"
    "Red Baron"
    "Red Riding Trilogy"
    "Remember Me"
    "Repo Men"
    "Resident Evil 4"
    "Restrepo"
    "Rising Stars"
    "Robin Hood"
    "The Romantics"
    "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead"
    "The Runaways"
    "Rush"

    "Saint Misbehavin"
    "St. John Of Las Vegas"
    "Salt"
    "Saw VII 3D"
    "The Scientist"
    "Score A Hockey Musical"
    "Scott Pilgrim"
    "Sea Rex 3D"
    "Secretariat"
    "The Secret In Their Eyes"
    "The Secret Of Kells"
    "Sex And The City 2"
    "She's Out Of My League"
    "Shoah: 25th Anniversary"
    "Shrek 4"
    "Shutter Island"
    "The Sicilian Girl"
    "Skyline"
    "Smash His Camera"
    "The Social Network"
    "Solitary Man"
    "Somewhere"
    "Soul Kitchen"
    "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"
    "Speed Dating"
    "Splice"
    "Spoken Word"
    "Spring Fever"
    "The Spy Next Door"
    "Standing Ovation"
    "Step Up 3"
    "Stone"
    "Stonewall Uprising"
    "The Square"
    "Suck"
    "The Sun Behind The Clouds"
    "Survival Of The Dead"
    "The Switch"
    "Tales From Earthsea"
    "Takers"
    "Tamara Drewe"
    "Tangled"
    "The Tempest"
    "TiMer"
    "Toe To Toe"
    "The Tooth Fairy"

    "Tiny Furniture"
    "Touching Home"
    "The Tourist"
    "The Town"
    "Toy Story 3"
    "Tron Legacy"
    "True Grit 2010"
    "Twelve"
    "Undertow"
    "Unstoppable"
    "Valhalla Rising"
    "Valentine's Day"
    "Vampires Suck"
    "The Virginity Hit"

    "Vision"
    "Waiting For Superman"
    "Waking Sleeping Beauty"
    "The Way Back"
    "Wall Street 2"
    "The Warrior's Way"
    "Welcome To The Rileys"
    "What If?"
    "When In Rome"
    "When You're Strange"
    "White Wedding"
    "Whiz Kids"
    "Why Did I Get Married Too?"
    "The Wildest Dream"
    "The Wild Hunt"
    "Wild Target"
    "Winnebago Man"
    "The Winning Season"
    "Winter's Bone"
    "The Wolfman"
    "A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop"
    "Women Without Men"
    "Wonderful World"
    "The Yellow Handkerchief"
    "Yogi Bear"
    "You Again"
    "Youth In Revolt"
    "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger"



    7.9.2011 17:31 #2

  • Frogfart

    "Fuck", what aload of shit films. Congratulations for typing them out and saving me so much time trying to watch all that crap. How long would it take to watch and download that?

    7.9.2011 17:54 #3

  • deak91

    ok from this list and from what i know this is how many movies i went to see last year
    1.Iron Man 2
    the next list is how many movies i bought on blu ray /dvd because of a trailer ive seen
    1 Iron Man 2
    2 The Book Of Eli
    3 Cop Out
    4 The Crazies
    5 Daybreakers
    6 Devil
    7 The Expendables
    8 Faster
    9 The Girl Who Played With Fire
    10 Hereafter
    11 Hot Tub Time Machine
    12 Jonah Hex
    13 Knight & Day
    14 The Last Exorcism
    15 Legion
    16 The Losers
    17 Machete
    18 A Nightmare On Elm Street 2010
    19 Paranormal Activity 2
    20 Percy Jackson
    21 Predators
    22 Repo Men
    23 Resident Evil 4
    24 Salt
    25 Scott Pilgrim
    26 Shutter Island
    27 The Warrior's Way
    28 The Wolfman
    30 Bounty Hunter
    31 Defendor
    32 Hatchet 2
    33 Inception
    34 Kick Ass
    ok so i was off on the how many i bought but this is proof(that i need a girlfriend and a life) but also not all movies released are meant to be seen or bought by everyone

    7.9.2011 17:56 #4

  • ThePastor

    Great list... thanks... I knew I forgot a few. ;)
    BTW:The Best? in no particular order

    Black Swan
    Bitch Slap
    Sucker Punch

    :D

    Unfortunately for them, all Blu-ray protections have been broken and BD rips can be found around the Internet, usually before the retail even hits shelves.

    7.9.2011 18:20 #5

  • KillerBug

    I think I might have seen about 6 movies from last year total.

    It is amazing how people just burn their money when they pirate movies. You would think they would spend it in local stores, helping the economy more than any other form of spending. The really odd part? They burn $2000 every time they pirate a $20 movie. Crazy, huh? I knew pirates burned movies, but I didn't know they burned cash too.


    7.9.2011 21:50 #6

  • xtago

    Comes from royalties and paying people etc.

    The problem though that $2000 is based on a movie released also makes it's full production costs and also makes a profit.

    Many movies released don't even make the production costs back and only a handful really make any profit.

    @killerbug
    If you add up the costs of the net connection plus the time spent downloading and the costs of HDDs and disks to burn off and stuff for a whole year you'd probably have spent more money than simply buying every movie at release.

    8.9.2011 05:44 #7

  • deak91

    After final edit and viewing they have to choose put it in theaters ,vod, straight to DVD or tv, or shelf the movie ,it's getting the cost back first them profit the only movies I hear about sueing is the crap or borderline crap movies the good ones use the BL as a promotion I've seen both iron mans BL and still saw them
    In theaters and bought them on disc because they are that good to me. I think it's crap that they sue and use projected profits that are guesstimation at best for movies that are not profitable at all by their standards the pirates are true unpaid critics and that scares the hell out of them because they can't pay them to say the movie is good an you should go see it

    8.9.2011 07:46 #8

  • nizers99

    Originally posted by xtago: Comes from royalties and paying people etc.

    The problem though that $2000 is based on a movie released also makes it's full production costs and also makes a profit.

    Many movies released don't even make the production costs back and only a handful really make any profit.

    @killerbug
    If you add up the costs of the net connection plus the time spent downloading and the costs of HDDs and disks to burn off and stuff for a whole year you'd probably have spent more money than simply buying every movie at release.
    I guess if you only paid for a net connection to strictly pirate movies, or if you went out and bought a hard drive just to store your pirated movies on, then maybe you'd kind of have a point.

    8.9.2011 11:39 #9

  • nizers99

    Quite honestly, any number, whether it be $2000, $4000, or $20 is complete BS. I'm not sure about the rest of you but I don't have an extra $.10 in my pocket. Every penny I've got goes into this economy. This is the most baseless figure I've ever seen.

    At the very best it's suggesting that people who pirate movies are shelling out $2000 to overseas country's. Not really sure how that works out.

    8.9.2011 11:44 #10

  • llongtheD

    How else are they going to get ridiculous DRM laws passed. In the U.S. our politicians are bought and paid for, and are actually that stupid. They'll stand at the podium and lie for their handlers, excuse me, lobbyists.

    If your fish seems sick, put it back in the water.

    9.9.2011 02:23 #11

  • xboxdvl2

    cost about $1000 for a decent pc capable of downloading movies.depending on what isp (and country) prices on internet connection change.a (overclocked) pentuim 3 or a pentium 4 is capable of backing dvds and changing (converting/encoding is the proper word i think) avi's to dvd.can pick up a 2nd hand pentium 4 for around $200.

    as for $2000 on dvds i know someone who buys dvds original and they cost between £2 -£5 for a dvd boxed set on amazon.com.he'd have to buy more than 4 sets a week at £5 a set to come close to spending $2000 on dvds.the dearest dvd ive brought in a shop was $21.98 and that was transformers 2 special addition in 2009.to come close to spending $2000 on dvds in shops you'd have to buy about 100 a year of the latest dvds.

    R.I.P. mr 1990 ford falcon.got myself a 1993 toyota corolla seems to run good.computers still going good.

    9.9.2011 07:32 #12

  • rking_ad

    Maybe the MPAA should try being a usenet provider!

    --pcdtv--

    9.9.2011 08:30 #13

  • john107

    Originally posted by KillerBug: I think I might have seen about 6 movies from last year total.

    It is amazing how people just burn their money when they pirate movies. You would think they would spend it in local stores, helping the economy more than any other form of spending. The really odd part? They burn $2000 every time they pirate a $20 movie. Crazy, huh? I knew pirates burned movies, but I didn't know they burned cash too.

    "They burn $2000 every time they pirate a $20 movie. Crazy, huh? I knew pirates burned movies, but I didn't know they burned cash too."
    omg...that's why I got no dough left!! I thought the wife was dipping in my pockets every night.!So all I gotta do now is buy 2 grand's worth of movies every year and then I'll be RICH....
    must keep this to myself or we'll all be doing it and then what will happen..???

    9.9.2011 08:51 #14

  • adre02

    Any one swallowing a cent of this garbage is a shill.

    9.9.2011 10:17 #15

  • Interestx

    Of course, to their greedy infantile minds every download is a lost sale.

    .....and naturally they get to pluck the number of downloads out of their a$$ & completely ignore the fact that a lot of us like to 'try before buying', so there are sales generated in there too.

    Then there's the not so small point that if sharing really was stopped a lot of us (like me for one, and I am far from alone on this) would just go back to not buying at all, I'll watch it when it comes on TV (for free) or in the most rare of circumstances when I bother to go to the cinema.

    All ways around they are onto a loser continuing with this stupidity.

    But why would anyone be surprised by this ridiculous BS?
    They already started trying to link terrorism & paedophilia to sharing.

    But that's just it.
    This is about sharing, which they are never going to discredit.
    And they really can't stand that.


    ....oh and finally, getting lectured about what they guess is a stack of avoided & lost taxes from a business & bunch of corporations that are in many ways one f***ing massive tax-dodge is hilarious and utterly shameless.
    The bare-faced cheek of these reptiles really is something.

    9.9.2011 13:34 #16

  • adre02

    Originally posted by xtago: Comes from royalties and paying people etc.

    The problem though that $2000 is based on a movie released also makes it's full production costs and also makes a profit.

    Many movies released don't even make the production costs back and only a handful really make any profit.

    @killerbug
    If you add up the costs of the net connection plus the time spent downloading and the costs of HDDs and disks to burn off and stuff for a whole year you'd probably have spent more money than simply buying every movie at release.
    How many people buy a computer for the sole reason to download? My guess, less than 3%. I've been in the tech business for 16 years and of all the reviews I've read and forums I have visited, I've yet to see a person say this computer was worth my 1000.00 because its great for d/l.

    Processing video goes behind just burning dvds. There are many more that do it for school or business rather than bootlegging.

    This is superman

    9.9.2011 19:10 #17

  • YOBUZZB

    I saw a couple of comments here that were rather disturbing. How could anyone even partially agree with the MPAA or RIAA? It's all about money for these clowns and always will be! They have no real ingenuity and this is due to the lack of oxygen in the bubble they exist in. I agree with the other 98% of the comments here! Where do they get these figures...oh as one member put it...pulled it out there A$$! Good stuff!

    "In all your getting, get an understanding!"

    Dell Dimension DIM4600 Intel P4 CPU 2.66GHz 2.5GB-DDR 160GB-HDD Primary 80GB-HDD Slave Memorex 16x DL -/+RW Burner JLMS DVD-ROM XJ-HD166 WinXP Home Edition SP3

    10.9.2011 18:49 #18

  • KillerBug

    Originally posted by xtago: @killerbug
    If you add up the costs of the net connection plus the time spent downloading and the costs of HDDs and disks to burn off and stuff for a whole year you'd probably have spent more money than simply buying every movie at release.
    What if you already had a PC, and a netflix/bb/redbox account so the system isn't on and downloading 24/7? Even if you only wanted to get a handful of movies, piracy would be cheaper. If you actually wanted to get all the movies for the whole year (over 1000 releases so far in 2011), then piracy would be far, far, far cheaper.


    12.9.2011 01:51 #19

  • YOBUZZB

    Originally posted by KillerBug: Originally posted by xtago: @killerbug
    If you add up the costs of the net connection plus the time spent downloading and the costs of HDDs and disks to burn off and stuff for a whole year you'd probably have spent more money than simply buying every movie at release.
    What if you already had a PC, and a netflix/bb/redbox account so the system isn't on and downloading 24/7? Even if you only wanted to get a handful of movies, piracy would be cheaper. If you actually wanted to get all the movies for the whole year (over 1000 releases so far in 2011), then piracy would be far, far, far cheaper.
    Now that's just funny!

    "In all your getting, get an understanding!"

    Dell Dimension DIM4600 Intel P4 CPU 2.66GHz 2.5GB-DDR 160GB-HDD Primary 80GB-HDD Slave Memorex 16x DL -/+RW Burner JLMS DVD-ROM XJ-HD166 WinXP Home Edition SP3

    13.9.2011 22:37 #20

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