Wolverine Vs The Pirates

For as long as I can remember, part of the joys of buying any sort of DVD or video was to be forced to sit through trite, crass and stupid piracy ads. You know the sort of advert I'm talking about; one that has bad acting, cliched situations and the unsubtle implication that by buying a pirated DVD, CD or video you are funding every sort of crime from drug related theft through to international global terrorism. And they all have that extra warning that purchasing pirated product will damage future production. 

I've never quite believed that taping someone else's CD or cadging a ripped off DVD from a seller in the pub is quite going to have such a devastating impact on the industries mentioned. However, now we have an example where we can actually see what impact piracy can have on the film. The leaking of X-Men Origins: Wolverine could dent that film's box office returns. 

I say "could", because we have no hard and fast proof that it actually will. The fact that it is on the internet doesn't means that vast hordes of people will rush to download it. For a start, not everyone will have the technological ability to do so. Likewise, the leaked copy is not the final cut, meaning you'll be missing out on how the film is actually supposed to look if you watch the pirate copy. Finally, there'll be more than a few people who actually want to go see this film in the cinema. For the experience of being at the cinema, and seeing what is actually an action movie on the big screen rather than your PC monitor. 

Nonetheless, if this picture isn't a big hit, then I can see the studio blaming this leak for it. Whereas the truth maybe slightly different. After all, this is the fourth film in a franchise that is nearly a decade old. The previous film the franchise was far from great, and everything about this origin story reeks of flogging a dead horse. So it is perfectly possible that if this film does fail, then that will have nothing to the piracy of it, but rather down to the quality of it.