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Project X the most pirated film of 2012

Teen comedy beats big guns like 'Avengers Assemble' and 'The Dark Knight Rises' to the dubious honour


Teen comedy 'Project X' has beaten the likes of 'The Dark Knight Rises' and 'Avengers Assemble' as the most pirated film of 2012.

It was also the lowest grossing film of the top ten most illegally downloaded features, in a list compiled by the site TorrentFreak.

[Related story: Project X sequel planned]



Interestingly, a number of the year's key releases, including Ridley Scott's 'Prometheus', 'The Hunger Games', and the 23rd Bond film 'Skyfall', do not feature on the list at all.

'Project X' was downloaded nearly nine million times on torrent site BitTorrent, followed by 'Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol' and 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

Here is the full top ten:

1. Project X - 8,720,000
2. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - 8,500,000
3. The Dark Knight Rises - 8,230,000
4. The Avengers - 8,110,000
5. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - 7,850,000
6. 21 Jump Street - 7,590,000
7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 7,420,000
8. The Dictator - 7,330,000
9. Ice Age: Continental Drift - 6,960,000
10. The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn - Part 1 - 6,740,000

It's thought that the film's 'R rating' in the US may be a key reason for heavy download traffic from younger film fans who were unable to see it at the cinema.

While 'Project X' made $101 million at the box office, both 'The Dark Knight Rises' and 'Avengers Assemble' made over a billion, with 'Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol' making nearly $700 million.

It was also roundly disliked by critics, who rounded on the film for its perceived misogyny and unlikable leads. It scored a 28% 'fresh' rating on reviews aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

The film, which starred newcomers Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown, followed the exploits of three friends whose house party gets spectacularly out of control.