It's safe to say that "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was the most heavily protected movie project in recent memory. Spearheaded by director J.J. Abrams' natural obsession over secrecy and supported by the deepest of pockets at Disney and Lucasfilm, details surrounding "The Force Awakens" were kept tightly under wraps. The Mouse House even filed a lawsuit over images of Adam Driver's Kylo Ren that leaked online ahead of the movie's theatrical debut and eschewed the typical awards season rollout of advanced screeners to avoid leaks.
But no matter how hard you try, someone is always going to spoil your plans in Hollywood.
Disney's early efforts were rewarded as "The Force Awakens" went into box office hyperdrive with $2.053 billion in worldwide grosses, the third-highest total of all-time. Unfortunately, their tight grip on "Star Wars" was loosened last night as "The Force Awakens" became available on torrent sites.
Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal. But the Blu-ray version of the film - which includes several deleted scenes and bonus material and isn't set to be released for another two weeks - was leaked online late Tuesday night. According to Torrent Freak, the movie was illegally downloaded 250,000 times in just the first 12 hours. The numbers will be fast approaching one million in the coming days given the immense popularity of "Star Wars."
Dozens of copies of the film are now floating around popular streaming, hosting and torrent sites. These include The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents where it is among the most shared files.
The original Blu-ray disc came from the REPLiCA release group and seems to be a regular retail copy.
The Blu-ray version is hardly the first footage to be leaked online. Secondary recording devices have captured most of the movie, but their low quality is of little interest to fans.
Disney and Lucasfilm have tried to combat piracy in recent weeks with the studio sending out tens of thousands of takedown requests to Google. However, the film remains widely available on several sites.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" Blu-ray will be available for legal purchase April 5.
Follow Brandon Katz on Twitter at @Great_Katzby.
