YouTube pirates are cashing in on Hollywood’s summer blockbusters
Adalytics and The New York Times report that YouTube has become a hotspot for pirated full‑length Hollywood movies, with uploads spanning every major studio from July 2024 to May 2025 . High-profile blockbusters like Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and Captain America: Brave New World attracted hundreds of thousands of views—Lilo & Stitch alone exceeded 200,000 views—potentially costing studios millions .
These pirated videos often slipped through YouTube’s Content ID by using tactics like cropping, mirroring, reversing clips, or embedding watermarks from other footage . Alarmingly, YouTube sometimes even recommended these illicit streams on users’ homepages, inadvertently monetizing them via ad placements .
YouTube asserts that most copyright‑flagged content was handled through its Content ID system, noting that ~90% remained online under rights‑holder control, while channels posting infringing full movies were terminated . However, some still profit due to “blind spots” before takedowns ().
Piracy continues to drain about $1 billion annually from the North American box office (roughly 15% of its revenue), according to the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment . Advertisers have also reported paying to run ads on now-deleted infringing content and receiving little clarity or reimbursement ().
