USA : "Still Alice" Hollywood Drama Movie's Biggest Premier in NY

Wolf of Wall Street 'is most pirated film of 2014'

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese's true-life tale of corrupt New York stockbrokers, was the most illegally downloaded movie of 2014.

Disney cartoon Frozen was second on the list, said The Hollywood Reporter, quoting piracy-tracking firm Excipio.

Both films were downloaded around 30 million times by torrent users between 1 January and 23 December 2014.

The third most-pirated film was space thriller Gravity.

It was just behind Frozen with 29.357 million downloads.

The Wolf of Wall Street, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as real-life stockbroker Jordan Belfort, caused controversy when it was released in the US a year ago for its scenes of sex and drug-taking.

It was nominated for best picture at the Oscars and contained more than 500 uses of the F-word in its almost three-hour running time.

Other Oscar nominees in the most-pirated top 20 included 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle and Captain Phillips.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that the biggest-grossing film of the year, The Guardians of the Galaxy, was not on the list "perhaps because anyone interested in the film opted to see it in theaters".

And Variety reported that while the number three spot went to RoboCop, the figures included both MGM's 2014 reboot as well as the original 1987 version.

Top 20

• 1. The Wolf of Wall Street 30.035m
• 2. Frozen 29.919m
• 3. RoboCop 29.879m
• 4. Gravity 29.357m
• 5. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug 27.627m
• 6. Thor: The Dark World 25.749m
• 7. Captain America: The Winter Soldier 25.628m
• 8. The Legend of Hercules 25.137m
• 9. X-Men: Days of Future Past 24.380m
• 10. 12 Years a Slave 23.653 million
• 11. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 23.543m
• 12. American Hustle 23.143m
• 13. 300: Rise of an Empire 23.096m
• 14. Transformers: Age of Extinction 21.65m
• 15. Godzilla 20.956m
• 16. Noah 20.334m
• 17. Divergent 20.312m
• 18. Edge of Tomorrow 20.299m
• 19. Captain Phillips 19.817m
• 20. Lone Survivor 19.130m

North Korea berates Obama over The Interview release

The Interview was released on Christmas Day, despite threats to movie-goers

North Korea has condemned US President Barack Obama over the release of the film The Interview, about a fictional plot to kill its leader Kim Jong-un.

TO WATCH FULL MOVIE CLICK HERE.

The National Defence Commission (NDC) also accused the US of shutting down North Korea's internet - and described Mr Obama as "reckless" and "a monkey".


Another internet shut-down was observed hours later, Chinese state media said.

Sony Pictures originally pulled the film after a cyber-attack and threats - a move criticised by Mr Obama.

He joined critics who had warned that freedom of expression was under threat if the movie was shelved.
Sony later reconsidered and released The Interview on Christmas Day.

The controversial film was shown in some US cinemas and is available online, with several hundred independent cinemas coming forward and offering to screen it.

However, larger theatres decided not to show the film.

'Righteous deed'

In a statement issued on Saturday, North Korea's NDC spokesman denounced the US for screening the "dishonest and reactionary movie hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK [North Korea] and agitating terrorism".

President Obama, the statement said, "is the chief culprit who forced the Sony Pictures Entertainment to indiscriminately distribute the movie", blackmailing cinemas in the US.

It added: "Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest."
The NDC also accused also Washington of "groundlessly linking the unheard of hacking at the Sony Pictures Entertainment to the DPRK".

The Interview is a classic Hollywood romp involving two lads who go to a strange place and get seduced (in several senses).

And it is very funny. That's partly because it is also a very good political satire.
It is powerful because it depicts Kim Jong-un as a vain, buffoonish despot, alternating between threats and weeping that he's been misunderstood. The people around him have all the signs of fear you might expect with a despot - they second-guess his likes and dislikes.

Maybe he - and they - were right to fear the film. North Korean defectors sometimes smuggle USB sticks with films and soaps into the closed-off country, and there is a view in the south that these are a particularly powerful means of undermining the regime in Pyongyang. If that's so, The Interview might be a good candidate for inclusion.

That fear may explain the North Korean leadership's intemperate, deeply racist language. It's not the first time, it has called President Obama a monkey.

TO WATCH FULL MOVIE CLICK HERE.