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Pirate Blockbuster Hobo With a Shotgun Blasts Into iMDb Top 10

Just two weeks ago, Hobo With a Shotgun was a relatively unknown Grindhouse-style movie but within a matter of days was riding high on BitTorrent networks and even broke into The Pirate Bay’s Top 10. Now it’s blasted into the iMDb’s weekly chart at No.9 – that’s up from No.252 in just a week.

Although it had been on the radar of Grindhouse movie fans for some time, Hobo With a Shotgun can hardly be called mainstream material. With its (albeit intentional) B-movie acting, storyline and bucket loads of gore, it was only really expected to appeal to dedicated followers of the genre.

Earlier this month, however, something interesting began to happen. Following Hobo’s 1st April VOD release (it won’t be out in theaters until the first week of May) an unofficial copy hit BitTorrent networks and within days it had reached No.13 in The Pirate Bay’s list of most downloaded movies.

This prompted director Jason Eisener to enter the discussion and, as we reported, he initially asked people not to download the movie.

But news of a super-entertaining movie travels fast and eventually Eisener crossed his fingers and resigned himself to possibility that all the publicity might be good for the movie. It was sitting at position No.252 IMDb’s Weekly MOVIEmeter – could that improve?

Yes, absolutely.

Just 10 days later and against some massive competition, Hobo With a Shotgun has now blasted up the IMDb’s Weekly MOVIEmeter ratings to an amazing position No.9, only one place behind Limitless and two behind Battle: Los Angeles.

IMDb Hobo

I wanted to include some official viewing links in this article for this movie but unfortunately, Amazon link aside, Google searches just had me going round in circles. Not even the movie’s official site could point me in the right direction, which to me seems absolutely ridiculous.

Official ways to access stuff should be right there in your face or people get sick of searching and end up at The Pirate Bay and other unofficial outlets. The addition of simple ‘WATCH NOW!!’ links on the official site would suffice.

Magnolia Pictures did find time to speak to the Web Sheriff though, who according to missing Google results, appears to have taken down some Hobo links.

He’s got a long way to go though. According to stats collated by TorrentFreak for our weekly Top 10 Most Downloaded Movies chart, Hobo With a Shotgun has already been downloaded around 150,000 times on BitTorrent.

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  • Guest

    Told you so moment

    • Anonymous

      MY exact first thought also. Really it was… “”told you so”"

      Told Jason here and on The Pirate Bay how he would gain from filesharers.

  • Flying Dutchman

    I hope Hobo makes a nice profit, so we can show movie directors this is the way of the future and are able to move away from the MAFIAA’s dying business model.

    • http://twitter.com/uJonesing Utah Jones

      Unfortunately, that is probably not what is going to happen if the movie makes a profit. What will probably happen is jokes like Web Sheriff, MediaDefender, et. al. will use it to say, “See!?! Our link-ganking pulled your movie back from the brink of profit-loss!!1″ and once again file-sharers will be cast as the bastard sons and daughters of Digital Satan once again.

      But for what it’s worth, Dutch… I hope you’re right and I’m wrong.

    • http://twitter.com/uJonesing Utah Jones

      Unfortunately, that is probably not what is going to happen if the movie makes a profit. What will probably happen is jokes like Web Sheriff, MediaDefender, et. al. will use it to say, “See!?! Our link-ganking pulled your movie back from the brink of profit-loss!!1″ and once again file-sharers will be cast as the bastard sons and daughters of Digital Satan once again.

      But for what it’s worth, Dutch… I hope you’re right and I’m wrong.

      • Ninja

        Actually, they will say the movie didn’t make money whatever the outcome is. Avatar was the most pirated movie and made like billions. And they moaned about losses.

        The thing is, 150k downloads are “150k lost sales” for them. So even if by some miracle that all those 150k bought the movie along with, lets say, other 1M ppl MAFIAA would still consider them as lost sales.

        I haven’t seen the movie but it must provide some nice entertainment to the ones that like this type of ‘action’ and I’m fairly sure that it would be selling horrors (hah, pun) if it was actually available for sale. Maybe not enough for tons of profits but much better than it would without the file sharing publicity.

        It’s no use my friend, whatever we do or say, whatever are the sales, MAFIAA will label us sons of the Digital Satan, filthy pirates, lowly scum of the world. But it matters not. As long as the real creators can see the benefits – and they did change their stance towards the sharing community – it’s far enough.

  • Whatever

    Anyone that finds time to talk to “Web Sheriff” to take down links/sites is a lost cause.

    @TF: Was there no reply from the director on this ? First going into discussion on TPB followed by using web sheriff seems a bit odd combination. They worry about income but have enough money for some sleezy (fake) lawyers to write expensive letters ?

    Reminder: Web Sheriff are mentioned on TPB legal page and the ones who would sue a cook for clothing.

    (Too bad the threat E-mails to TPB that are published seem to have dried up)

    • http://nannirk.net/ Marius Krinnan

      The money they make on this movie is to make sure they can make MORE movies.
      It’s not about having money, it’s about showing you’re worth investing in.

      • Whatever

        A bit late but…

        It is not going to help to spend all the money to make more movies on a profession of which is known that the world improves when you sink all of them to the bottom of the sea.

        (for the slow: lawyers).

      • Whatever

        A bit late but…

        It is not going to help to spend all the money to make more movies on a profession of which is known that the world improves when you sink all of them to the bottom of the sea.

        (for the slow: lawyers).

  • Jeb20

    What really matters is if the pirating translates into sales. Otherwise, it does not matter how high up on the list the movie goes.

    • Anonymous

      Sadly it will have to rely solely on sales… As yet… there still is no project donate option.

      • Anonymous

        Yeah, well I say screw this guy. He’s obviously hired Web-Sherrif, and he was against piracy from the get-go.

        We keep asking for a donate button, and the dumbass won’t listen.

        I haven’t seen the movie. It’s pretty much one of my least favorite genres, but I was prepared to give the guy $2 he would have never gotten from me, piracy or not, if he embraced p2p as a viable distribution tool. But the dumb fuck doesn’t want donations. Therefore he is PURPOSELY sabotaging his revenue from this project.

        Keep stealing his movie & don’t give him a dime.

        • Anonymous

          I’m starting to kind of feel this way too… He’s sadly mistaken if he thinks I want some garbage DVD. The MPEG2 Codec used on those is SOOOOO shitty. 4 gigs for a movie, or 700mb a movie? hmmm… I’ll just keep my XViD copy for my DivX players. But I’d gladly donate $15 US dollars. But ONLY donation. I’m tired of buying plastic Frisbees to show support. All my movies are on SD Cards or my 1.5TB External HDD. Same goes for music.

          I DON’T WANT THE OUT-DATED MEDIUMS YOU ARE TRYING TO SELL ME.

        • Ninja

          Oh I so damn agree with you. Why 25Gb blu-ray when you can get a 6Gb movie with x264?

          And I’ve been saying: SET UP A FREAKING DONATION BUTTON. Nuff said.

        • Anonymous

          He might not have been the one to hire Fail Sheriff. As TF says, it may have been Magnolia Pictures.

          Remember, once an artist signs with a studio they’re signing away the copyright to their own work.

        • Ninja

          True enough. That’s why I said above in another comment: all we need to know is about the real creators thoughts.

        • Anonymous

          He might not have been the one to hire Fail Sheriff. As TF says, it may have been Magnolia Pictures.

          Remember, once an artist signs with a studio they’re signing away the copyright to their own work.

    • http://nannirk.net/ Marius Krinnan

      The higher on the list, the more people will want to check it out. And not everyone downloads illegally, so yes, it does matter.
      And I’d much rather have the bluray with special features than a webrip.
      I’d even consider going to see it in the cinema. And that’s just based on the title, and the story of how the film came to be. Then I saw the trailer, and I was absolutely sure.

  • DocGerbil100

    Is this available for the UK at all? I can’t find it on Amazon or HMV.

    • http://twitter.com/uJonesing Utah Jones

      ^ Point made. ^

    • Doctorly

      Lmao, the movie isn’t even out yet… point not made. Did you read the article?:P It comes out in theaters in May guys.

      • http://twitter.com/uJonesing Utah Jones

        Clearly, you didn’t get the point.

        • Ninja

          Yes he didn’t. Availability is one of the things that gets your stuff pirated and not ever bought.

    • Flying Dutchman

      The movie will be released in the UK on the 22th of July, according to IMDB

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1640459/releaseinfo

    • http://nannirk.net/ Marius Krinnan

      I think it’s only on VOD in North America. Probably won’t hit Europe until after theatric release.

    • DocGerbil100

      Thanks to everyone who replied. :)
      Sorry for not doing my own research, I was confused by the director’s suggestion that the film would be released “soon” in the UK and thought it must be out by now. ‘Soon’ obviously means the same as ‘Three and a half months away’ in Canadian – a dialect of English I’m not really too familiar with, eh. :D

      Looked it up in Wikipedia. It has this to say:

      “The film was released in Canadian theatres March 25, 2011. The film will have a limited release in the United States on on May 6, 2011, the Netherlands on May 19, 2011, and in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2011. The film was also released via OnDemand services such as Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and iTunes on April 1, 2011.” [the VOD release seems to be US-only]

      I give up. I want to support this via VOD, or something else that isn’t prehistoric junk, but it’s easier not to care. I’m going to wait the six months (or whatever) for the movie to get released on DVD, buy the damn coaster and just throw it in the rubbish along with my receipt. :/

  • Anonymous

    lol, that must be one really cool flick. Must have.

  • http://profiles.google.com/steidl001 Adam Steidl

    It’s awesome that the film’s popularity is up, due to P2P, now let’s hope that we all also contribute to the film, to show Follywood that P2P _is_ beneficial. I’ll take a quote from Star Wars (Phantom Menace), and edit it so it works for Follywood: “I’m a [film industry executive]; Jedi mind tricks don’t work on me….only money!” If they get more money by using p2p, then, and only then, will they rethink their stance on filesharing. In short: if we like the movies we download, then let’s also buy the official releases, or movie tickets to the theaters! :) They’ll stop thinking of us all as pirates, and more as the vital customer base that we are.

    • AnonPirate

      Unfortunately its just a pipe dream. Even if we all brought the movies we liked, they would just put a spin on it, to make it look worse than it is still.

      Whats really needed, is this film needs a donate button. Then everyone who has watched it can make a donation (as much as they feel it deservers) .
      We all need to add a little note on the donation aswell. Something like.

      *I Pirated your movie and it was fucking great.. Here is the £10 I think it deservers. I would never of found it without good ‘ol bittorrent*

      There is then a nice bit of hard evidence for them, something they can not put a spin on

      • http://profiles.google.com/steidl001 Adam Steidl

        Great idea

      • http://www.facebook.com/i3rucei3ruce Bruce Spart Ludlow

        Movie watching services like that already exist. They even have the service for youtube-like uploads, and for musicians’ works.

        All that is already out there on the internet, but obviously it won’t work- no one knows anything about it, despite advertisement campaigns and the like! Because no one really cares, and no one would really donate money.

        Unfortunately, as you put it, it’s just a pipe dream.

        • Anonymous

          “Movie watching services like that already exist. They even have the service for youtube-like uploads, and for musicians’ works.”

          Umm, links please?

          It’s pretty silly to complain that nobody knows anything about it when you won’t even provide links. It’s unknown? Well no shit!

        • http://twitter.com/uJonesing Utah Jones

          Really? And here I was thinking Pioneer One is already in production for its fourth (or is it fifth?) donation-based episode. Silly me; if only I’d read your post before I hit that Donate Here image…

          Shameless whoring for ‘em: PioneerOne.tv

      • Anonymous

        Exactly. If an indi production project , can’t / wont make donation , to the project an option then no one will.

        Incomprehensible as to why Jason has let a potential revenue stream disappear.
        If I also worked on that film…. I would be livid.

    • http://nannirk.net/ Marius Krinnan

      If there were Flattr links in the name of the film’s creators embedded at the download site, the problem would almost solve itself.

  • hotdog

    I’m sure Jason is wowed but I hope he thinks for himself and learns more about p2p.

  • http://otester.myopenid.com/ PiRat

    “Magnolia Pictures did find time to speak to the Web Sheriff though, who according to missing Google results, appears to have taken down some Hobo links.”

    Screw them then, censoring ***holes.

  • Paul

    Yay, congrats Jason. I hope you have a great future ahead of you. Good luck!!

  • Capn

    @DocGerbill100 – Released in the UK, July 22, 2011

    • DocGerbil100

      Thank you. :)

  • Joetoc

    The days of releasing a movie to theaters, then making people wait to buy it or rent it on DVD/Blu-Ray are over. They should release everything at the same time. People want to view the content in the way they are most comfortable. I love going to the movie theaters, but there is no way my wife would go see this movie with me. If it was on Blu-Ray I would buy it right now but because of the stupid Gatekeeper mentality of Hollywood I have to wait months. Or… Ohh yeah, The Pirate Bay has it…

  • SteRipper

    I have watched this movie – I can see why this movie is so popular…It’s super good, and it might help it in the theaters.

  • Anonymous

    They need to release it right now. The movie is hot right at this moment and not in six months. They also could have already had their budget back if they had a donate button.

    • Anonymous

      Yeah, I think it’s similar to the indie games article on Ars. If it was out now while the hype was there they’d make a lot more profit. In six months it’s going to be pretty dead.

  • Pingback: Pirate Blockbuster Hobo With a Shotgun Blasts Into iMDb Top 10 | Torrentfreak.com

  • Rabbit80

    This is a classic example of windowed releases not working. I for one wqould buy this if I could. Most likely, I will forget about it by the time it is available on DVD!

  • Anonymous

    I trust Jason and his colleagues on this project have learnt from this experience.
    Filesharing is good for business… If you adapt to working business models.

    Again.. Still no donate option..
    Jason : surely you can force a donate option @ magnetreleasing ?

    • Whatever

      “have learnt from this experience” + “call in the Web Sheriff” =

      Does not compute.

      • Anonymous

        agree .. at first glance… it does not compute… but look a little deeper….

        MAGNOLIA PICTURES are the ones who used Web Sheriff.
        They are distributors.
        Of course the distributors are going to complain , their job is middleman and completely cut out by filesharing.

        Filesharing success makes these old style distributors(with promotion) look completely and utterly useless.
        It really is funny… Filesharers … Distributed and promoted the film faster and better than the distribution company did.
        .

        But The film director , the cast etc… are not tied to a distributor ..

        And I hope ( maybe “”trust”" was too expectant ), I really do hope they have learnt from this experience.

        • Whatever

          Thats why it would have been nice if TF would have asked the director of the movie to comment on the findings.

          However it may be possible that “free speech” has been blocked in the contract with the distributor. So he may not be able to say what he wants to say. It has always been amazing how companies can demand silence of people in contracts (under the disguise of trade secrets/company harm). It should not be possible to silence anyone by contract (should be a criminal offence).

      • Johnwayne

        What is this ‘Web Sheriff’… SHIT?……This is a joke right?….omg your havin a laugh right?…Is John Wayne gonna get me?…….I better stop d/l’ing before he rides into town and shoots my ass off….Haha…He wont find me cos im hidden in the saloon bar under the table.

  • Guest

    I will buy the DVD once available.

    • http://otester.myopenid.com/ PiRat

      Don’t, otherwise you will be supporting the distributors that are censoring the internet, the only losers being the people that made the film, their own fault in a way for using such an archaic distribution model, shame.

      • Dylansg

        Censoring the internet? *rolls eyes* Movies cost money to make, there’s nothing archaic about needing to recoup an investment and protecting what’s yours under copyright. Releasing a film for free online is a good distribution model…as long as you’re not involved in the movie.

        • http://otester.myopenid.com/ PiRat

          Restriction of information is not compatible with a free society.

          You sir, are a fascist!

        • Dylansg

          Copyright laws are what allow filmmakers and studios to continue producing this entertainment that you so desire. And restriction of information is entirely compatible with a free society, as is restriction of property (you can’t just walk into my house or take my things). It’s a little funny that someone who believes “restriction of information is not compatible with a free society” would have a blocked account, thereby restricting their own personal information from others. Nice logic there.

        • Ninja

          Troll. Copyright has nothing to do with me donating to Jason without ever buying the DVD or watching the movie. Take your head out of your arse and look around you.

        • Donotreply

          Copyright law is to protect the current distribution model, nothing at all to do with the creative artists.

          Again currently:
          Artist –> Distributors (leeches) –> Public

          What it should be is

          Artist –> –> Public

          Tack on a donate button and the public that likes the work will reward the artists with what they thought it was worth (some will pay more than others but overall a good product as judged by the public will make a profit in most instances).

          Subsequently; releases relying on opening week takings in cinemas on the back of a doctored trailer will become a thing of the past because of this ‘try before you buy’ model (not to mention make purchasing of games much fairer since there would be recourse for a refund [try doing that atm and you'll have better luck drawing blood from a stone =X ] ).

          Niché markets IMO would be a little more profitable; as because of not having to make a purchase before trying the product, people will fell less compelled not to give it a go (much like how p2p has made this movie more popular).

          Sure there will be people that will not pay regardless (no loss whether they download it or not [though a gain if they give it to someone else who likes it and buys it instead of hitting the old delete button] ); but overall getting something from people more directly (as opposed to having to purchase other items which sees more profit go their way than to distributors) would be far better and more profitable than having to rely on the current ‘man in the middle’ distribution model.

  • Anonymous

    agree .. at first glance… it does not compute… but look a little deeper….

    MAGNOLIA PICTURES are the ones who used Web Sheriff.
    They are distributors.
    Of course the distributors are going to complain , their job is middleman and completely cut out by filesharing.

    Filesharing success makes these old style distributors(with promotion) look completely and utterly useless.
    It really is funny… Filesharers … Distributed and promoted the film faster and better than the distribution company did.
    .

    But The film director , the cast etc… are not tied to a distributor ..

    And I hope ( maybe “”trust”" was too expectant ), I really do hope they have learnt from this experience.

  • blaa

    I’d really like to know what the director thinks about all this

    • Test

      well try asking him on Twitter:
      @jasoneisener

      • Johnwayne

        I wanna ask the ‘Web Sherriff’ what he thinks of this?…..John Wayne?…….Where art thou?

  • Johnwayne

    Oh sorry…….HE’S DEAD…..Just like the webcunt sherriff…..fuck you, you spastic waste of space

  • ilikelamb

    i reckon this guy has just finished internet marketing 101 2011 and has a really good grasp on it…smart me thinks…..although…nah…. anyway…..watched the film liked it told people about it…. dont expect it to be it the cinemas around these parts…..dont buy dvds and am still looking for that donate location…..his loss

  • Someone

    lets just get a few things straight here

    MAGNOLIA are the ones who called in websherrif since they have the distribution rights to the movie, they dont want you to download it not the director he has already said you can, even tho i highly doubt he has the rights to the movie anymore

    theres nothing the director can do as far as adding donate buttons etc since that would be viewed as distribution and he would have broken his legal binding contract with magnolia which gives them exclusive distribution rights to the movie

    the director is trying to do whats best and take a risk by basically allowing downloads in the hopes that it will be good advertising and have their sales go up. He really needs to be supported even if for now that means supporting magnolia aswell

    im sure there have been ALOT of arguments over what he has said on TPB between him and the distro and if this proves to make money theres a chance he will start releasing to the net with a donate button (and then later at the cinemas/dvd etc) and no distro company

    so insted of just sayin fuck him and guessing it was him who went to web sherrif (lol didnt think they was around no more) when nothing says he did lets prove BT is great for advertising and something that costs more to fight than it does to allow/use

    • http://otester.myopenid.com/ PiRat

      At the end of the day even if this doesn’t work well he can still make another movie, other indies have done only donation/merchandise for funding/profit.

  • Anonymous

    gfgf

    • Ninja

      He can always set up a neutral donation button so we can donate for HIM because we are just a bunch of dorks wanting to give him money. Then he can spread the goods to the crew. Depends on his morals lol.

  • Anonymous

    gfgf

  • Lost Donator

    I would of liked to donate a few quid to show my support for this project. But as said many times, there is no donation button available. Oh well.

  • niggerjew

    are these guys behind trailer park boys?

  • niggerjew

    are these guys behind trailer park boys?

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