Fans can't get enough of Hawkeye and Venom: Let There Be Carnage -- even if they have to break the law to watch them.
MUSO, an anti-piracy and analytics company, revealed that Marvel's live-action heroes are amongst the most-pirated shows and films. As reported by Deadline, MUSO's findings show that Hawkeye attracted 26.7% of all illegal TV show downloads, torrents and streams during the observed period of Nov. 22-28. This makes Hawkeye the most-pirated show of the week, ahead of The Wheel of Time, Dexter: New Blood, Star Trek: Discovery and Arcane. Similarly, Venom: Let There Be Carnage was the most-pirated movie of the week, claiming 38.3% of all pirated film activity. Other movies in the list of movies include No Time to Die, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Red Notice and Dune.
Marvel Studios' Hawkeye debuted over Thanksgiving weekend with a two-episode series premiere on Disney+. Rotten Tomatoes certified Hawkeye as "Fresh," with a 93% critical approval rating and an 83% audience score. Despite this swell of support, the series didn't reach as many viewers as the platform's previous Marvel Cinematic Universe television shows. In the five days following Hawkeye's premier, 1.5 million households watched the first episode, with 1.3 sticking around for the second. This is nearly half of Loki's viewership, which had 2.5 million households tuning in when it premiered in June. Previous MCU offerings WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier also topped Hawkeye's total, with 1.6 million and 1.8 households tuning in for their respective premieres. While it is impossible to account for all of the factors that led to Hawkeye's drop in viewers, piracy likely didn't help it out.
As for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Deadline points to the film's recent video-on-demand release as the key to its pirated popularity. After observing a 45-day window from its theatrical release, Sony put the movie online for fans to purchase. With a high-quality copy of the film readily available for the internet to post as they see fit, Let There Be Carnage was bound to attract new viewers. Fortunately, the film is already a success for Sony. It earned over $469.6 million globally, making it one of the highest-grossing movies of the year. In the wake of the Let There Be Carnage's box office success, Sony reserved two 2022 dates for unnamed Marvel projects.
Despite the prevalence of piracy, Marvel Studios looks to continue pushing for more streaming content through Disney+. The company will be adding Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Secret Invasion, Agatha: House of Darkness and She-Hulk to its live-action offerings in the coming months. Additionally, the streaming service announced plans for a series starring Echo, which will spin directly out of the events of Hawkeye.
For those looking to watch Marvel's heroes legally, Hawkeye is streaming on Disney+, while Venom: Let There Be Carnage is available through video-on-demand services, with a home video release set for Dec. 14.
Source: Deadline