Megaupload Shutdown Hurt Box Office Revenues

According to the researchers this may have been caused by the loss of word-of-mouth promotion by people who used the popular file-hosting site to share movies.

Comparing box office revenues before and after the Megaupload raids shows that overall box office revenues went down. The effects are small, but consistent across different sample designs when taking into account factors such as inflation, Internet penetration and the popularity of Megaupload in each country.

The researchers therefore believe that their findings may support the notion that piracy can act as promotion. Those who pirate movies may talk about them to friends, who unlike them do pay for movie tickets.