Chinese sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth battles horde of rampaging online pirates
- Producers of Lunar New Year hit send out a plea for help as illegal copies flood the internet
China’s latest blockbuster The Wandering Earth is making megabucks at the box office but is fighting a bigger threat than a looming explosion of the sun – a voracious piracy industry that is eating into its ticket takings.
Pirated copies of the movie, which has earned over 2.1 billion yuan (US$311 million) in ticket sales since its release on Tuesday, the first day of the Lunar New Year, have flooded China’s internet. As a result, the space epic that was the highest highest-grossing film in the traditional peak box office period, can be bought online for as little as 1 yuan.
On Sunday, an alarmed National Copyright Administration asked web users to report infringements to “protect good domestic films”.
“After several days of joint action by multiple departments and the copyrights’ owners, the spread of pirated copies of Spring Festival movies has been curbed to some extent,” the administration said on its microblog.
Gong Ge’er, who leads the movie producer’s anti-piracy team, said his team was busy blocking links to pirated copies and needed help.
“In recent days, the staff of The Wandering Earth have not had time to celebrate the box office success, but have devoted almost all their energy to complaining to authorities about piracy and blocking pirated copies,” Beijing Youth Daily quoted Gong as saying.
