The most popular films on pirated resources in 2023 were “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” and “Barbie.”

The most popular film on pirated resources in 2023 was the new “Avatar”, in second place was “Guardians of the Galaxy: Part 3”, the top three was “Barbie”, as calculated in FACCT and the Film Distributor Bulletin. Most of the rating of the most popular films comes from Sony, Universal and Warner films, but you can also find Russian films. Market participants do not note a drop in the volume of the pirate market, despite analysts’ forecasts. But in 2024, legal players intend to continue the fight against the shadow segment, including through monitoring the implementation of legislation on labeling and advertising accounting.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the rating of films that were illegally downloaded more than others in 2023, prepared by analysts of the cybersecurity company FACCT (formerly Group-IB) together with the “Film Distributor’s Bulletin”. The assessment was prepared based on the number of illegal copies detected on pirated resources, the company clarified. The first three lines were taken by “Avatar: The Way of Water” (20th Century Studios; box office receipts in the Russian Federation in unofficial distribution amounted to 1.2 billion rubles, according to the Bulletin), “Guardians of the Galaxy: Part 3” (Marvel Studios, 204 million rubles .) and “Barbie” (Warner Bros., RUB 349 million).

All of the films listed were not officially released due to the departure of foreign majors against the backdrop of hostilities in Ukraine.

For this reason, most of the participants in the rating are films whose production and distribution were carried out by the departed Warner, Sony, Universal and Disney. The rating of films also included “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (fourth place; Paramount Pictures, 57.6 million rubles), the “Mission: Impossible: Deadly Reckoning” franchise. Part One” (ninth place; Paramount Pictures, 179 million rubles) and “Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fate” (tenth place; Walt Disney Studios, 99 million rubles) and another project of the Marvel universe “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantomania “(11th place; 78 million rubles). At the same time, the sensational “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures, 326 million rubles in Russia and the CIS) took only 13th place in the rating.

The list also included films that could be seen quite legally in cinemas and on video streaming.

For example, this is “Cheburashka” directed by Dmitry Dyachenko, which still remains the leader of the Russian box office (6.7 billion rubles). The project ended up on the sixth line of the “pirate” rating, ahead of it is “Operation Fortune: The Art of Victory” by Guy Ritchie. The distributor of the film was Global Film, the gross receipts amounted to 685 million rubles. The rating also includes “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan” (12th place; 118 million rubles), “Hypnotic” (14th place; 219 million rubles), “Crash” (15th place; 164 million rubles).

Back in May, FAC.C.T predicted that by the end of the year, the volume of the market for pirated video services in the Russian Federation would decrease by more than 10%, to $40 million (see “Kommersant” dated May 16). However, market participants and analysts do not note a decline. Director of the Department of New Technologies at J’son and Partners Consulting Dmitry Kolesov believes that the revenue of the illegal market, in the worst case, decreased by 5%. He emphasizes that there were no initiatives to combat piracy this year, “rather the opposite.” Thus, the Ministry of Digital Development is studying the possibility of abandoning restrictions on access to sites that provide unlicensed video content from Western companies, RBC reported in July. The ministry proposed opening access to pirated services whose content, in particular, is not in film distribution and does not contain extremist materials or LGBT propaganda.

Despite the fact that copyright holders actively protected the content, there were no significant breakthroughs in methods of combating piracy, admits the general director of the Internet Video Association (unites Ivi, Start, Okko, Amediateka) Alexey Byrdin. He confirmed that “the content of copyright holders who have left Russia is now being distributed with complete impunity.” At the same time, the expert claims, the position of original Russian series is improving: “The fourth quarter will show good growth in the legal market, including due to the phenomenal success of the series “The Boy’s Word,” despite the edited version of one of the episodes leaked online.” In 2024, the association itself will continue to work on a bill that should extend the regulation of audiovisual services (AVS) to all resources with video content, including pirated ones. Also, according to Mr. Byrdin, it is planned to “hit the pirates’ income through monitoring the implementation of legislation on labeling and advertising accounting.”

Yulia Yurasova