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Hollywood struggles with rampant piracy
Báo Tuổi Trẻ
25/08/2026
08:00
Amidst the wave of leaks involving Spider-Man and The Odyssey, Hollywood's battle against piracy has entered an entirely new era.
The Odyssey có hành trình rực rỡ tại nhiều phòng vé trên toàn cầu - Ảnh: Universal
Christopher Nolan spent three years writing, directing, producing, and editing The Odyssey: a masterpiece filmed across six continents using the world's rarest cameras, featuring an A-list cast, and designed exclusively for the big screen.
Yet, just eight days after its wide release in July, millions of viewers worldwide watched a pirated version of The Odyssey on the social media platform X before it was taken down for copyright infringement. Today, audiences can stumble upon near-perfect copies of theatrical blockbusters on various social media apps and watch them in their entirety before anti-piracy teams can even trigger emergency protocols.
The losses for media companies amount to tens of billions of USD annually, and this figure is set to rise as technology continues to evolve. This new form of piracy is becoming a double-edged sword for legacy media conglomerates. Hollywood has reason to celebrate as Gen Z has unexpectedly flocked to theaters recently. However, this demographic often records key plot twists and enthusiastic crowd reactions to prove they were there.
Các phân cảnh của Spider-Man: Brand New Day bị phát tán tràn lan trên mạng - Ảnh: Sony
Spider-Man: Brand New Day also became a victim. On its premiere day, the film was streamed to 5.9 million X accounts before the studio could take down the illegal copy. Management consulting firm Kearney and anti-piracy company Muso estimate that film piracy costs the movie industry 75 billion USD annually, with projections rising to 125 billion USD by 2028.
With an average ticket price of about 16 USD, the 5.9 million views of Brand New Day on X significantly impacted the film's potential box office revenue. In other words, even Spider-Man cannot stop the staggering speed at which illegal versions of newly released blockbusters appear online.
The current method for detecting and removing pirated films online is no less complicated than filling out customer service forms. Studios send takedown requests to TikTok, Instagram, and other social media companies, then wait for a response.
Sources from Variety state that if stolen film files are copied and distributed widely enough, emergency calls are made and lawyers are brought in. Most platforms act quickly, with the exception of Elon Musk's X, which the source describes as "notoriously difficult to deal with."
Nhờ hiệu ứng truyền miệng từ các trích đoạn phát tán trên mạng, Obsession thu hút nhiều khán giả ra rạp. Điều này khiến Hollywood khó xử trong việc giải quyết nạn phim lậu - Ảnh: IMDb
The film industry is enjoying a rare moment of victory as 2026 box office revenue has surpassed 6.5 billion USD and is on track to reach 10 billion USD. Films such as Obsession, Backrooms, Toy Story 5, and The Devil Wears Prada 2, along with the two summer blockbusters The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, have all contributed to this milestone.
And all of them easily become targets for piracy almost immediately. For now, within Hollywood studios, copyright protection departments are focusing their resources on cracking down on large-scale criminal syndicates behind digital piracy—networks specialized in sharing and distributing premium content.
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