Over the weekend, a high-quality pirated version of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ made its rounds on a popular social media platform. It soon went viral, garnering millions of views within hours. The film, shot entirely on IMAX cameras by Nolan, is still in theatres and has been closing in on the USD 700 million global box office numbers.
‘The Odyssey’ pirated version released online
On July 25, an anonymous account, which has now been suspended, shared a high-quality version of the IMAX film to their account. According to Variety, a message from a now-suspended X (formerly Twitter) account shared a high-quality link to the movie, which quickly went viral. The full 2-hour and 53-minute film was shared on the platform. By the time the platform could officially take down the video and the account, it had almost reached 2.1 million views.‘The Odyssey’ joins the long list of films that have been pirated and leaked online on X in the past couple of years. Ryan Gosling’s ‘Barbie’ was also shared similarly on the platform, along with other films including ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’, as well as ‘Avatar 3.’ Every time the clips, along with the anonymous accounts that posted them online, were taken down and suspended.
Film distributor issues statement about ‘The Odyssey’ leak online
Soon after the film was released online on X, the film’s distribution company and studio issued an official statement. In a statement to Deadline, Universal said, “We became aware of the unauthorised posting of the film and immediately initiated takedown protocols. We take copyright infringement seriously and will pursue all appropriate remedies to protect our content and intellectual property rights.”
Fans react to ‘The Odyssey’ leak online
While the leak resulted in a lot of people from across the globe watching Nolan’s film on X, it was taken down from the platform quickly. Taking advantage of the momentum and the situation, some fans pranked people online by ‘Rickrolling’ them. Referring to a popular online prank where two videos are merged to mislead the viewer. While some of the slips started with the production company’s official logo scenes from ‘The Odyssey’, the clip then directly shifted to playing singer Rick Astley’s 1987 song ‘Never Gonna Give You Up.’
‘The Odyssey’ box office numbers
Despite the number of views online on social media, the film continues to have strong box office numbers. Sacnilk reports shared online revealed that the film has already closed in on USD 640 million in global box office against its overall budget of USD 270 million within its first 10 days. In India, the film’s total net box office collections stand at Rs 142.86 crore, while the total net collections are Rs 119.65 crore. The film is closing in on the USD 700 million mark, with predictions suggesting it may soon reach USD 1 billion in box office numbers.
