Study: the closure of Megaupload could have a negative impact on the box office of many films

The closure of the largest file sharing service Megaupload about a year ago had a controversial effect on the box office movies. A study of the impact of this event on the collections of 1344 films in 49 countries, conducted by German and Danish scientists, revealed that only high-budget blockbusters, reaching more than 500 screens, benefited from the closure of Megaupload. Movies with an average and small budget are more likely to lose - their box office has only decreased, although not very significantly.

The researchers suggest that this effect may be due to the fact that blockbusters get enough promotion with centralized means - through traditional advertising. And low-budget films are much more dependent on “viral” advertising, and free file sharing plays such an important role in this that the positive effect of faster dissemination of information about the film outweighs the negative effect of replacing trips to the cinema with free home viewing. Thanks to file sharing, more solvent viewers will learn about the film, and pirates actually advertise the movie for free, telling friends and sharing links about it.