{"id":83910,"date":"2025-07-03T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=83910"},"modified":"2025-07-03T09:00:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T09:00:52","slug":"28-days-later-is-a-hit-on-pirate-sites-23-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=83910","title":{"rendered":"\u201928 Days Later\u2019 is a Hit on Pirate Sites\u2026 23 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"28Danny Boyle and Alex Garland\u2019s highly anticipated return to their iconic post-apocalyptic universe, \u201828 Years Later<\/a>,\u2019 has stormed the box office. <\/p>\n

Despite a disappointing<\/a> second weekend, the film crossed the $100 million<\/a> revenue mark, surpassing its $60 million budget and setting a new record for the franchise.<\/p>\n

The latest installment also resurrected interest in the two first movies. Data from Flixpatrol<\/a> shows that \u201928 Weeks Later\u2019 was in the top ten of most streamed films on Netflix and Disney+ in the days following the premiere of its sequel. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the same can\u2019t be said for the original cult classic, \u201928 Days Later.\u2019 For years, the film was notoriously difficult to access legally, with rights disputes<\/a> keeping it off major streaming platforms and even out of digital storefronts in recent years.<\/p>\n

Sony Pictures eventually made the film available for digital purchase and rental in December 2024, and last month it also appeared on Pluto TV\u2019s ad-supported streaming service in some countries. However, it\u2019s not as widely available as the other films.<\/p>\n

Movie Fans Turn to Pirate Sites<\/h2>\n

The lacking availability on the largest streaming services was noticed by many over the past few weeks, when demand for the film surged. Instead of buying a digital copy or watching the movie with ads, some fans opted to get a copy through pirate sites instead.<\/p>\n

Based on a sample of torrent activity tracked by IKnow<\/a>, we can report that pirated downloads of the film have surged since the premiere of \u201928 Years Later\u2019. This was good enough to make it into the list of top ten most pirated films<\/a> over the past week, 23 year years after its release.<\/p>\n

The chart below shows the daily estimated downloads for the first two films, with most interest going to the original.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Estimated torrent downloads (sample)<\/em><\/center>
\"28<\/center><\/p>\n

The numbers reflect data in the BitTorrent sample, which represents just a tiny fraction of the total interest on pirate sites. Most pirates use streaming platforms now, which can\u2019t be tracked directly. However, these were likely good for a million streams or more. <\/p>\n

Without causal data, it is difficult to draw strong conclusions from these findings. Then again, it makes logical sense that fewer people would pirate a film if it was available on one of the streaming services they\u2019re already subscribed to. <\/p>\n

Movie Pirates Go to the Movie Theater<\/h2>\n

Needless to say, rightsholders are not happy to see this increased activity on pirate sites. However, there\u2019s also a more positive spin to these findings. <\/p>\n

Presumably, many fans rewatch the first two films before they go to the movie theater, the majority likely to do so legally. A segment of the audience might use pirate sites to \u2018catch up\u2019 or re-engage with the franchise, before purchasing tickets for \u201928 Years Later.\u2019<\/p>\n

This can serve as a gentle reminder that many movie pirates are also avid movie fans: they are consumers who pay<\/a> for streaming services and spend money at the movie theater. <\/p>\n

In fact, it is not unthinkable that the option to rewatch the earlier films for free motivated some people to go to the theaters. If that\u2019s the case, one could argue that piracy increased revenues, at least in this isolated example. <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Note: The data used in this article comes from Iknow<\/a>, which tracks torrent downloads through DHT and PEX. While it may not be able to track all downloads, it\u2019s a substantial sample. Views on streaming platforms, direct downloads, and other piracy sources can\u2019t be measured directly. That said, we assume that the trend will be similar there.<\/sup><\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland\u2019s highly anticipated return to their iconic post-apocalyptic universe, \u201828 Years Later,\u2019 has stormed the box office. Despite a disappointing second weekend, the film crossed the $100 million revenue mark, surpassing its $60 million budget and setting a new record for the franchise. The latest installment also resurrected interest in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}