Godzilla vs. Kong Was the Most Pirated Movie of 2021

When you take into account the box office for 2021, and the public statements from one company on how much money they believed they lose to piracy, it may surprise you to know that most pirated movie of last year wasn’t a Marvel title. A report from independent tech firm Akamai (via TheWrap) revealed the most illegally downloaded films of 2021 with Warner Bros. titan mash-up Godzilla vs. Kong taking the top spot as king of the monsters and king of the pirated feature films. Despite these piracy metrics, the film was still a rousing success, bringing in over $460 million at the global box office.

According to Akamai, five of the top 10 most pirated movies were releases from Warner Bros. including Zack Snyder’s Justice League (an HBO Max exclusive), the reboot of Mortal Kombat, The Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman 1984 (technically a 2020 release). Only one Marvel Studios movie appeared on the list however, Marvel’s Black Widow, with three other Disney films making the Top 10, Cruella, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Jungle Cruise. The only other studio with a title on the list was Universal Pictures with F9 cruising to a Top 5 spot. You can find the full list of the most pirated movies of 2021 below. 

1. Godzilla vs. Kong
2. Zack Snyder’s Justice League
3. Black Widow
4. F9
5. Mortal Kombat (2021)
6. The Suicide Squad
7. Cruella
8. Wonder Woman 1984
9. Raya and the Last Dragon
10. Jungle Cruise 

Godzilla vs Kong marked the first big movie to be released in theaters in 2021, arriving just as vaccine rollout began in earnest in the United States. The sequel, a culmination of seven years and three other “MonsterVerse” movies, brought in over $100 at the domestic box office and nearly cleared $470 million globally and paving the way for an eventual follow-up movie and even a TV series spinoff that’s in the works at Apple TV+.

What’s perhaps the most surprising about this list of the most pirated movies of 2021 are the omissions. Not present is Daniel Craig’s final James Bond movie, No Time to Die, nor Dune, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, or Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. All of these films made more money at the global box office than some of the films that did make the list, perhaps lending credence to Disney’s report that they lost $600 million to piracy on Black Widow.