One of the biggest issues that’s come burdened with streaming services debuting major movies on demand is a drastic increase in piracy, and we’ve gotten to the stage now where torrenting websites are sharing Top 10s of their own to reveal which titles people are refusing to pay for.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Widow landed in theaters and on Disney Plus Premier Access back in early July, and it caused a major issue between Scarlett Johansson and the Mouse House. The actress ended up taking legal action against the company for loss of earnings, but the movie itself may have suffered an exponentially worse financial fate.
Even though Black Widow made $379 million at the box office and brought in an additional $125 million from Premier Access by mid-August, a new report from Deadline indicates that the first installment in the MCU’s Phase Four could have lost out on as much as $600 million.
Natasha Romanoff’s long-awaited solo debut is said to have been downloaded illegally over 20 million times, and when you compare that number to either the average cost of a theater ticket or the standard $29.99 Premier Access price, then hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings sounds about right.