One of the biggest justifications for studios to continue exclusive theatrical windows is that by holding off on a streaming release they are also delaying the availability online of high-quality pirated versions of their movies. Real data backs this up, with rates of online piracy had skyrocketed during the pandemic era when studios redirected many of their major film releases to streaming exclusively or day & date to theatres and online. Big-budget titles such as Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla Vs. Kong” and Disney’s “Black Widow” suffered from a torrent of illegal downloading, starting within hours of the movie becoming available on branded streaming services. The monster thriller “Godzilla Vs. Kong” was illegally streamed over 34 million times, taking a bite out of both theatre ticket sales as well as HBO Max subscriptions. Disney released Pixar’s animated film “Luca” in the U.S. on Disney+ on June 18th and in China to theatres on August 20th, since Disney+ is not yet available in China. However, the big-budget ”Luca” tanked at the box office, grossing a mere $5 million. Many analysts suspect that the delayed-release in China allowed for widespread piracy, which was responsible for its underperformance at the box office.