The World War I-themed movie, which clinched a Golden Globe award for best movie and secured 10 Oscar nominations earlier this week, was one of six film releases leaked in a massive screener dump over the past 24 hours, TorrentFreak reports. This brings the total number of leaked screeners in 2020 to 16, which is a significant increase compared to an all-time low in 2019. For those unfamiliar, screeners are usually intended only for private award screenings. Not this time, though. Curiously, TorrentFreak notes two separate piracy groups — TOPKEK and Hive-CM8 — leaked 1917 screeners, adding both releases likely came from different sources as they have different quality and file sizes. In addition to the war flick, the leaked screeners also include Oscar contender Richard Jewell, A hidden Life, Color Out of Space, Dark Waters, and Queen and Slim. It remains to be seen what effect the leak will have on 1917 box office sales. Contrary to what you might expect, researchers from the University of Houston and Western University found that pirated movies often perform better post-release. Of course, things were quite different for pre-release leaks. So, technically speaking, piracy doesn’t always spell bad news for ticket sales. Either way, you know there’s currently a small group of Hollywood suits throwing tantrums about this development. Not much we can do about that, I guess.
