The Best Reviewed Films Of 2011 Vs. The Most Pirated

[Brendon Connelly]

Is there going to be any crossover between the top ten most pirated films of 2011 and those that were awarded the most positive reviews? Are downloaders drawn to the same movies as hacks?

And if there is a crossover... what will it be?

I looked into it and the answer actually surprised me...

Note: this list of the ten most well-reviewed films comes from Metacritic. The better-known and more well-read Rotten Tomatoes use a different ranking system and draw on a slightly different pool of critics, so when they publish their year end list, the picture could be tweaked a little.

First, the list of 2011's most pirated films as compiled by Torrent Freak using data "from several sources, including reports from thousands of BitTorrent trackers."

1. Fast Five - 9,260,000 downloads
2. The Hangover II - 8,840,000 downloads
3. Thor - 8,330,000 downloads
4. Source Code - 7,910,000 downloads
5. I Am Number Four - 7,670,000 downloads
6. Sucker Punch - 7,200,000 downloads
7. 127 Hours - 6,910,000 downloads
8. Rango - 6,480,000 downloads
9. The King?s Speech - 6,250,000 downloads
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - 6,030,000 downloads

Intriguing reading... and a list that is not entirely dissimilar to the Best Reviewed countdown.

Not entirely.

Here are the top ten films on Metacritic's rankings for 2011:

1. We Were Here - 94/100
2. My Perestroika - 90/100
3. A Separation - 90/100
4. Poetry - 89/100
5. The Artist - 89/100
6. The Arbor - 88/100
7. I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You - 87/100
8. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - 87/100
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - 87/100
10. Moneyball - 87/100

So it's the boy wizard who brings together both pirates and critics. JK Rowling should be proud. Probably.

And he even ranks a little bit higher with the critics than he does the crooks, if you see it as a tiered roster.

Note that The King's Speech and 127 Hours are counted as 2010 films by Metacritic. Had Speech been included in this year's list, with a ranking of 88/100, it would have been another crossover point between the two sets.

As stars of both films, Helena Boham Carter and Michael Gambon should be proud. Probably.

[FilmBuffRich]

oddly enough, the films on the most-pirated list are the type that I would want to see in theaters and the best reviewed list (minus the crossover between the two) are the ones I would be apt to d/l (if I did such things) as most of them didn't play in my area.

[Blackfist]

Fast Five deserves to be pirated through it's stupid title alone

[ampersand]

Wow. The only movie I really recognized from the best reviewed list is the Harry Potter one. I didn't see it thought. I got Harry Pottered out on the last book. Moneyball seems vaguely familiar. I've heard the name but that's it.

I'm surprised something that like Sucker Punch got downloaded so much. It's such a visually stunning movie I'd hate to see a crappy looking version.

[The Xenos]

The only best reviewed one I saw was Moneyball and the only other one I heard of was Harry Potter.

Meanwhile, I saw two of the most downloaded in theaters, Rango and Thor. I have them on Blu Ray now. I actually did download Suckerpunch because I missed it in thearters and wanted to avoid spoilers, only to not to have watched it. Now a friend has a copy on Blu Ray and I'll watch it there.