SAN FRANCISCO: After spending about US$100mil on Lilo & Stitch, a live-action remake of a 2002 animated film, Disney had plenty to celebrate. The film pulled in US$361mil (RM1.53bil) worldwide on its opening weekend in May and bested Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning at the box office.
But the company also had cause to be concerned. In the days after the Disney film’s opening, a pirated version of Lilo & Stitch proved to be a hit on YouTube, where more than 200,000 people viewed it, potentially costing Disney millions of dollars in additional sales, according to research from Adalytics, a firm that analyses advertising campaigns for brands.
