Rhett Reese, the writer and producer of the fantastic Zombieland, recently wrote this on his Twitter:

Zombieland currently the most pirated movie on bit torrent. Over one million downloads and counting. Beyond depressing. This greatly affects the likelihood of a Zombieland 2.

That got me thinking about the effect copyright infringement (I hate the word piracy) has on sales, either at the box office or at retail.  For starters it shouldn’t be assumed that every instance of copying should equate to a lost sale, there are plenty of people out there who cannot afford to purchase a DVD or Blu-ray but who can download a movie.  If the ability to download a film was suddenly taken away it’s not a given that that person would automatically purchase the product.

In contrast, there are also people who will download a film or album and if the product is good will then happily purchase a legitimate copy.  A try before you buy arrangement.  After all, everyone hates going to see a movie or buying it blind and the thing turning out to be utter shit (G.I. Joe springs to mind).

I really don’t think I can agree with Reese’s statement that heavy copyright infringement of a film will jeopardise a potential sequel.  In this day and age everything is illegally copied, and Hollywood will not base it’s decisions on the extent of this copying.  By simple logic, the most popular and sought after films will be copied the heaviest, but they will also likely generate the highest box office returns and the largest retail sales, and it’s these figures which the studios care most about.  As long as there’s a significant return on their investment from the box office, and to some degree retail, the studios will always move forward with sequels.  Hell, Wolverine was available as a workprint before the film even hit theaters, it was a beyond awful movie which was panned by everyone, yet it still made a shade under $180 million dollars (barely scraping over it’s production budget of $150 million).  Guess what, a sequel was announced not long after.

I absolutely loved Zombieland, but if a sequel doesn’t come to fruition it’s not because of rampant copying, it’s because the studio doesn’t have faith in the project or because more money can be made from something aimed at the kids (G-Force, Alvin and the Chipmunks) rather than an R rated horror comedy.  Zombieland took $73 million at the US box office with a production budget of $24 million.  With that kind of return if all the principals want to come back I have no doubt that a sequel will be forthcoming.