Study Finds Piracy Has Negligible Influence on Box Office Results

A study that can be found on Deadline surprisingly reveals that online piracy has negligible effects on movie box office results. The extensive study, titled “Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales,” was spearheaded by Brett Danaher of Wellesley College and Joel Waldfogel at the University of Minnesota and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Even with the rise of piracy, red blooded Americans still prefer to see films in theaters rather than on their awful, awful pirate computers powered by slaves and sea prisoners.

Don’t think that awful pirate Geekscapists like Shane O’hare and Sandstone are off the hook for the damage they’ve done though. Historically, a movie that’s been out a few weeks and has been pirated sees a bigger decrease in overseas box office than it would have almost a decade ago, before the rise of bit torrent sites.

So yes, pirating is still bad. And you’re still a cheapskate.