And BitTorrent’s Oscar Goes To…. District 9
Written by Ernesto on March 07, 2010In just a few hours the Oscar winners will be announced, including the award for the best movie of 2009. We take a look at the nominees in the Best Picture category to see which film would win if every download on BitTorrent counted as a vote.
Tonight, Hollywoods biggest stars will walk the red carpet into the Kodak Theater for the Academy Awards ceremony.
In anticipation of the glamorous Oscar night, we enter the dark side of the movie business to find out which of the 10 nominees in the Best Picture category gets the vote from BitTorrent users. NewTeeVee asked us to rank the nominees by number of downloads and the results are finally in.
If every download on BitTorrent counted as a vote, District 9 would be crowned the winner, closely followed by Avatar. The least popular films according to the BitTorrent public are The Blind Side with 1,845,000 downloads and An Education with ‘only’ 683,000 downloads.
We have to note that comparing the downloads of each of the nominees is not really fair since some films have been available online for more than a year already, while others only leaked a few weeks ago. Avatar, which is second in the list with 11,326,000 downloads, became available in DVD-quality a month ago, while District 9 was already widely available last September.
As usual, all the nominated films are available online in various formats. For District 9 2,948 unique torrent files were counted, but the majority of these are inactive or have very few downloaders. Avatar beats District 9 in terms of availability with 4,280 torrent files.
The data for this list is collected by TorrentFreak from several sources, including reports from all the large BitTorrent trackers. All release formats, including cammed versions, are counted. Afterwards, the data was carefully checked and possible inaccuracies were systematically corrected.
| rank | movie | downloads | |
|---|---|---|---|
| torrentfreak.com | |||
| 1 | District 9 | 12,639,000 | |
| 2 | Avatar | 11,326,000 | |
| 3 | The Hurt Locker | 7,930,000 | |
| 4 | Up | 5,437,000 | |
| 5 | Inglourious Basterds | 5,376,000 | |
| 6 | Precious | 4,922,000 | |
| 7 | Up In The Air | 4,855,000 | |
| 8 | A Serious Man | 3,836,000 | |
| 9 | The Blind Side | 1,845,000 | |
| 10 | An Education | 683,000 | |
Previously: Anti-Piracy Group Seeks Laws to Expose BitTorrent Pirates
Next: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
98 Responses
Im quite surprised with the list and the amount of downloads..
I cant wait to watch the Oscars!!
Hope you all have a great Oscar night..
Regards to all
avatar !
i hate district 9
District what?
fookin prawns
Interesting. District 9 must be up there because of curious BitTorrent users that quickly realized how sucky it was.
Avatar out in dvd quality? WHere the fuck is it? I only see scr
2009 film of the year for me. The numbers dont lie.
“You know Wikus. He never was very strong.”
i thought District 9 was awsome. Avatar was sweet to, but it was kinda like phocahontas in space. Anyways, its going to be either Hurt Locker precious or the movies in 7,8 9 and 10th place thats going to take that oscar.
District 9 is a typical “”cartel movie”" .
The trailers looked amazing. The film looked well worth the money for a cinema/dvd viewing.
However the actual movie was trash. Awfull plot , characters and no emotion was felt by watching it.
I guess the torrent “chart” reflects the reality , of how we all are fooled into watching crap movies. At least torrent users where not CONNED into paying for this trash.
* best film I have seen in the last year =
Fish Tank http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232776/
I think the winner will be Avatar. District 9 is the lider at this moment becouse there is not any proper Avatar release yet. People are waiting for dvdRip and better formats.
What a pointless article.
You’ve made a “winners list” out of films that have been available on torrent sites for varying lengths of time up to an arbitary date so the download number to “win” are meaningless.
And then associated, by naming, this meaningless list with The Oscars awards that have nothing to do with how many times people view a title but rather are a measure of a selected group of people’s votes.
What is the point of this? What does this have to do with The Oscars? There seems to be little rhyme or reason to make a list containing selected download figures, taken over largely different time periods and then say “Oh, it’s like the Oscars” when the Oscars are voted on.
Also: “For District 9 2,948 unique torrent files were counted” is a true testament to why public trackers are so goddam awful. Seriously, that is appalling.
these numbers are wrong 11 mil for avatar ?i downloaded avatar with like 1 mil peers.real numbers are much bigger
“I guess the torrent “chart” reflects the reality , of how we all are fooled into watching crap movies. At least torrent users where not CONNED into paying for this trash.”
I sort of feel a bit awkward pointing this out as it seems so obvious but as you seem to not know this I shall.
“All” people don’t have your views on whether a film is good or not. So saying that all people thought District 9 was rubbish because you thought it was and that this is “reality” is false and leaves you looking somewhat deluded or so babyish you haven’t worked out that teh whole world isn’t wholly your experience.
You may want to check yourself and have a good long think before you go commenting on “reality” next time as you appear to be living in your own little world where simple, obvious to most parts of reality are just escaping you, not even entering your vision as it were.
All you have to do is visit Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic or IMDB to see that most people believed District 9 was a very good film.
Also you can check out Fish Tank’s ratings and see that many people thought it was not very good as well – not well made and frankly depressing without much redeeming point. If you can relate to the failure of a girl portrayed in that film to find it so worthy maybe it says somehting about you – you’ve screwed up your own life – maybe due to being off in your own little world and not facing reality?
really fellatio? you start out so well, but then you decent into ad hominem…
@ernesto – redo the chart calculating the # downloads per week to get a better idea.
I’d guess avatar would be far ahead of the curve on that one.
District 9 won because they are counting all release types (cam,dvdrips, etc etc) and avatar has barely any releases.
That in mind, with the count as it is, avatar should win as it’s few releases have more downloads than almost all of the 40 district 9 releases.
District 8 was actually quite good, if you avoided the hype and dig a good story, if you wanted a special effect laced half assed sci fi movie, well, Pocahontas, err I mean avatar, is right down your alley.
District 9 was definitely a great movie. I watched it at the cinema, and later grabbed the blu-ray rip.
Avatar is a socialist movie.
well it’s actually great that lots of people watched a movie like district 9. on the other hand, as i can see from the comments here, too bad most of them didn’t actually understand what it was all about :))
Pointless article, pointless download figures – how do they account for DHT transfers?
Why bother doing this and associating it with the oscars when the oscars is a vote?
Hey trolls, movies are subjective, what you think is the best movie ever, others will think is the worst, and vice versa – we’re a very diverse species! There is no “right” answer, only popularity.
Good article TF! Will be interesting to see if the Oscars mirror the torrents =)
@ Nigger : “Good article TF! Will be interesting to see if the Oscars mirror the torrents =)”
Why is it a good article?
Why would you find it interesting to compare two arbitary sets of numbers that are not related. Do you often find it interesting comparing 2 sets of unrelated data with no relative meaning to each other … that is nonsensical.
And one set, the number of downloads, is ranked in an order that has little to do with arranging the set in any meaningful manner – as the article itself points out.
Why?
The amount of downloads or the amount of copies bought, in my opinion, says nothing about the quality of the item, be it movie or music.
I loved district 9 and think it should be movie of the year, but I have no faith that the voters will get it right.
Movies winning oscars usually are horrible, we’ll know what movie to avoid after tonight.
@22 Anonymous
“Why would you find it interesting to compare two arbitary sets of numbers that are not related. Do you often find it interesting comparing 2 sets of unrelated data with no relative meaning to each other … that is nonsensical.”
First of all its TIGGER not NIGGER you racist piece of shit!
In answer to you question, yes, i find it very interesting comparing arbitary sets of numbers…nonsensical – thats just the way i role!
Oh, and secondly, key word in my post “popularity” not only are the numbers related in terms of popularity, but they are also representitive of the same form of media! duh!
And thirdly, if you dont like Torrentfreak articles, why are you wasting your time reading this??? I like Torrenkfreak articles, thats why i read Torrentfreak! I suggest you do us all a favour and find a new website to troll god damn ignoramus! =P
nice idea for article XD
@Fellatio
Most people are also stupid. Consider that as well.
@ Nigger : “Oh, and secondly, key word in my post “popularity” not only are the numbers related in terms of popularity, but they are also representitive of the same form of media! duh!”
They are not related in terms of popularity, one set is how many times people downloaded files (which is highy inaccurate to begin with as THE ARTICLE ITSELF MAINTAINS – in case your going to argue this point), the other set of numbers is the number of votes pertaining to the quality of the content of those files.
They have nothing to do with each other. Many of those downloads are made by people who have not seen the content, how are they remotely related?
“And thirdly, if you dont like Torrentfreak articles, why are you wasting your time reading this???”
What, I can’t be critical of articles now? And you think every single article is just awesome – I can’t help blind unthinking enthusiasm now can I…
I suppose someone who enjoys comparing 2 unrelated sets of numbers and is interested for some reason is easily pleased owing to the complete lack of connection to anything meaningful – maybe that accounts for the “everything is awesome because it’s TorrentFreak” attitude…
“An education”
Never heard of it, what about
“The Invention of Lying”
Im sure that would have been downloaded more times.
http://seedbits.org/signup.php
District 9 was better than Avatar IMO,Avatar character development was unrealistic even for a sci-fi movie that’s probably coz it’s a rip off,district 9 was original refreshing and touching,Avatar is a multi hundred million dollar CGI fest .that’s just my humble opinion.
Fellatio writes a great post. Too bad nobody can take him seriously since he calls himself Fellatio. Wonder if you’ve ever seen the Daily Show correspondance bits…
Out of all of those I only watched 2, and they both stunk like rotten eggs.
The 2 being District 9 and The Hurt Locker.
District sucked,it was literally one of those rare instances where the commercial was better than the movie.
Obviously
All of those 12million that downloaded “District 9″ either:
a) watched it, enjoyed it and then bought a legit copy(as a back up in case the tracker goes down, obviously- as it’s more convenient to watch a pirated copy, but it slaves their conscience)
OR
b)Thought it was sh!t, immediately deleted it from their HD, and would never have bought it.
So, no lost sales there, then……
Cpt. Troll says: “I downloaded District 9 because of all the hype surrounding it and deleted it after 20 minutes. There’s no fucking way I’d pay money for that shit.”
Let´s face it – this is a storm in a very small pond. Each one of you is entiteld to his own opinion. There is no right or wrong anyone can beat someone else over the head with. What we see is a bunch of statistics collected for our enjoyment, not somethig to start a war about.
I do not even see why they even bothered with oscars this year. Why???? To find out who’s movie sucked the least? There was not one movie worth a $10 admission or a $5 rental. Even downloading this years movies seemed pretty much pointless. If the MPAA’s plan is to get rid of piracy by making crappy movies, it’s working!
Man!!! The MAFIAA is losing big time, aren’t they?
On the other hand, the content creators are winning (lets not confuse those two). EG. Avatar has grossed over 200B despite being second on the list. If anything the so-called “piracy” has helped it become a worldwide success.
@12 and 13: …
@39: Thanks.
By doing some VERY simple math these numbers could have been converted to illustrate actual standings of these movies in popularity.
Take number of weeks a DVD version of the movie has been out, devide number of downloads by this number = actual picture.
If District 9 has been out for 20 weeks and it has been downloded for 20000 time (just an example), than it its popularity rating is = 1000.
If Avatar DVD has been out for 1 week and has been downloaded 3000 times, then it’s popularity rating is = 3000 which by far surpasses District 9.
Do this for all the movies nominated for Oscars and you actually have a semi-accurate picture.
I personally would not download a crappy version of Avatar as it would not do the movie justice. If there was a BR-RIP than yes… but only after seeing it for fifth time on IMAX 3D screen…
So article should be deleted, or changed to compare apples with apples…
If you wanted even more accurate pic then compare also CAM to CAM releases and length of them being out with number of downloads, R5 releases, etc etc… and sum them all up and come up with a rating system to compare these numbers…
This article is bull crap…
Who cares? Most of them were shit anyway. It’s all about self worth to them, giving each other pats on the back.
Tossers the lot em……
Shoddywood ripping everyone off then congratulating each other for it.
And remember do not feed the trolls!!!
the numbers are flawed, all those movies except avatar already have the dvdrip available. once avatar dvd is out it will surely destroy district 9.
District 9 was amazing. Avatar will win however. Avatar was the better movie, but District 9 was the better accomplishment.
All the other nominees are stupid.
I believe that Avatar going to trump at the oscars tonight and if you figure how long distinct 9 has been availably and Avatar as torrents then it is safe to say Avatar is the true winner in the torrent race.
http://www.movietorrentblog.com
@4
lol
The Blind Side was an awesome movie, but I also enjoyed both the top 2 movies
Lmao, look at all the Avatar fanboys. Reality check, Avatar sucked, bad. It was so bad that five year olds could follow it without being confused, there are so many plot holes and the only actually good actor in the entire movie is Sigourney weaver.
District 9 was the worst movie I’ve seen in many years. First it started like it was a school project, or maybe a video game intro, the acting was over the top, and for about one hour I was wondering when was the real movie going to start.
Anyway, the movie tried to say if aliens would come to earth they will be discriminated, similar to how jews, niggers and gipsies were/are considered sub-human by some.
While the idea behind the movie showed promise, the actual movie it’s crap. Creepy characters, bad acting, boring and pointless.
Avatar it’s the other way around. The story isn’t particulary great or original. But the special effects are so good, you won’t care about the story.
After all, if you want a good story, you should probably read a book.
Why did I bother reading the comments to this. Reading morons comments annoying each other is stupid.
I don’t know what some of you nut sacks are talking about, District 9 was the sh*t. Movies are subjective blah blah blah, but D9 was a refreshing piece of work.
Wow.
Should’ve been Terminator Salvation.
I think District 9 sucked, to be honest. Avatar was heaps better! Sadly, though, I won’t be able to see the Oscars tonight as Cablevision has stopped airing ABC.
District 9 was the best Sci-Fi film i’ve seen in a very long time. Avatar was visually stunning though the storyline was incredibly derivative and weak. It should not even be in Oscar consideration, apart from the visual and sound elements.
Hahahaha the people who BOUGHT Assassin’s Creed 2 deserve the stick that Ubisoft just shoved up their arrrse today.
Check this article: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/07/ubisoft-drm-authentification-server-is-down-assassins-creed-2/
UBISOFT DRM SERVER IS DOWN
Means you can’t play the game if you bought the legal version
Bwahahahah CRACKED VERSION FTW. I hope they come up with a crack for local autosave, start from beginning and more soon!!
District 9 was fantastic, and clearly the best movie of the year.
Avatar was good, entertaining visual feast.
Hurt Locker was terrible, and not really worth watching.
Man, they (TF) are just using a premise to choose the “best” movie. If you didn’t like it just go to your own blog and make your own “best” list with whatever criteria you want… The article is just fine.
I haven’t seen District 9 and not planning to see it anytime soon. I’d guess Avatar will win one or two Oscar, specially for soundtrack and special effects. It is a great story if you aren’t narrow minded enough to say it’s a remodeled Pocahontas and automagically classify it as trash. Still, I’m not sure if it can win as the best movie.
In any case, I can’t really give a solid opinion since I have seen las than half of the list hahaha. Cheers.
Blah, honestly no one gives a rat’s ass about the Oscar! The only day of the year where you have a bunch of overpaid good for nothing pretentious, narcissitic, swines and crooks gathering together to pat themselves on the back. Honestly, it is shallow and a waste of time.
That is only torrents. What are the downloading figures when you include Rapidshare & megaupload?
District 9 was way better than Pocahontas in Space.
I’m so disappointed that District 9 was left without any Oscars :( It really deserved at least one
i didn’t like most of of them lol
and the winner of the stupidest movie of the year is….
Terminator Salvation.
adam @ 17: “really fellatio? you start out so well, but then you descend …”
Like all fellatio, and yet … isn’t that kind of the point?
.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that, when it comes to fellatio, maybe the descent matters more than the destination …
.
No, it’s definitely the action that matters.
.
Avatar was awesome and worth the pirating!
.
Proves that the majority of people are just cattle led by the nose by hollywood, unable to think or engage with anything that is outside the “blockbuster”. The oscars are just a part of the self-perpetuating machine.
They tell you what to like, and then you like it.
Proves that the majority of people are just cattle led by the nose by hollywood, unable to think or engage with anything that is outside the “blockbuster”. The oscars are just a part of the self-perpetuating machine.
They tell you what to like, and then you like it.
Well, even though Avatar was available for download, its one of those movies that you really can’t watch as a RIP or DVDscreener. Even if you didn’t like the movie, you have to admit that seeing it in the big screen (especially IMAX) is the preferred way of seeing it.
Whoever says District 9 was no good needs their head examined, you have no taste.
District 9 was decent, anyone who thinks avatar is better is a complete tard..
Circle of Life? Seriously?
Plot is a carbon of POCAHONTAS.
Graphics were good yes, everything else is from a kids movie.. grow up.
@65 Ninja
Narrow minded? Your obviously blind..
Its the most generic storyline re-used and re-branded a million times.
Tree of life.. some girl that this guy wants to impress but she is supposed to be wed to someone else..
Wins her over.. then screws up.. but then comes back and saves the day.
Operative of the government.. doesn’t like what hes doing but does it anyway until the last minute when he decides to be the ‘hero’.
Generic, which is a shame because the artwork is original, too bad they didn’t come up with something less predictable than Obamas failure.
Hurt Locker can only Win the Oscar for the AMERiCA!
When they make an Irak film and there is in dram in it, it wins the prize..
District 9 Hell YEAHHHH..
Avatar is a very “pretty” movie. District 9 is on the other end of the spectrum. Plot-wise, it is the stronger movie.
Yea right. POS pretentious movie.
[Quote]Also you can check out Fish Tank’s ratings and see that many people thought it was not very good as well – not well made and frankly depressing without much redeeming point. If you can relate to the failure of a girl portrayed in that film to find it so worthy maybe it says somehting about you – you’ve screwed up your own life – maybe due to being off in your own little world and not facing reality?[/Quote]
Fellatio…… @15
I said “” The best film I ( I ) have seen all year”" .
[quote]You may want to check yourself and have a good long think before you go commenting on “reality” next time as you appear to be living in your own little world where simple, obvious to most parts of reality are just escaping you, not even entering your vision as it were.[/Quote]
SO YOU are saying that in reality….. people DON’T go see crap films because of a good looking trailer ? ………..
In the “”bubble I live in”" people go and watch films based on trailers….they buy music Albums based on Singles……………….( but I am detached from reality in your head ? ? ) ………………………
finally Fellatio ……..
Why decend into insulting when you disagree ? . . .
Fish Tank http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232776/
Fish Tank is the best film I have seen all year.
If you like films that make you feel on edge , then you might like it.
It wasn’t hyped up , didn’t have a big advertising budget or CGi.
Just a great story based truly in reality.
The ending is genius…. No morals or preacy reason for the story. It leaves you wondering.
The number of posters trashing District 9 shows just how ignorant how many people are, downloaders or not.
Typical Hollywood film? Do a little research before making a fool of yourself.
and The Hurt Locker won……
I thought Avatar Will get 6 Awards the results was disappointed.
Same Way Bittorrent’s result also dissapointed
District9 the movie S___Ks
http://www.torrents.bz
More people need to watch A Serious Man.
district 9 / 8outof10
mostly because of main charater acting from dude ive never seen in previuos movie,i believed he was jacked up going through the transformation.
avatar / 7outof10
not original but visual and yes ground breaking effects, which to me since im older look like sometimes video game cinemagraphics
agreed serious man damn good drama, dude gets fecaled on the whole movie just wanted to scream stand up for yourself hebrew.
????? ?????????? ???????.
And remember kids.. When you download The Hurt Locker make sure you have an ipfilter loaded into utorrent and peerblock configured correctly..
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