‘Avatar’ the most pirated film of 2010

"Avatar" is the most pirated film of the year, according to data released by a file-sharing blog. The biggest film in history was downloaded from torrent websites 16.6 million times, according to TorrentFreak. That represents a 33% increase in download activity from last year's top-pirated film, "Star Trek," which was downloaded just under 11 million times.

20th Century Fox, which distributed the sci-fi epic, isn't exactly crying. The film grossed nearly $2.8 billion at the worldwide box office to become the highest-grossing movie ever (before accounting for inflation).

Director James Cameron has frequently touted 3D filmmaking as the industry's best hope for combating piracy, but 3D glasses didn't hold back pirates from shattering all recorded piracy records. The financial performance of "Avatar's" home entertainment revenue isn't known yet, but the initial DVD release broke sales records.

Surprisingly, second on the list was "Kick-Ass," with 11.4 million downloads off torrent web sites. The kiddie superhero film underperformed at the worldwide box office with sales of about $96 million.

"Inception" followed with 9.7 million downloads, "Shutter Island" with 9.5 million, and "Iron Man 2" with 8.8 million.

Source: Reuters