The Expendables 3 movie leaked, just before its premiere

A copy of the film has been circulating the Internet since Wednesday and in just 12 hours it had been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Torrent Freak noticed that through the BitTorrent program alone, more than 66,000 users are distributing the torrent file, and it is very likely that this leak will cause great damage to Lionsgate, the company that distributes the film.

It's hard to pin down who leaked the film, especially with P2P releases, but it seems that the original leak came from Drarbg. The user has accounts on several major torrent sites, including The Pirate Bay. You might think that this user is a lone wolf, but it has been reported that Drarbg is a group of independent users operating as a team. He also, as the name suggests, has partnerships with RARBG, a popular public torrent site. The third Expendables film, which Sylvester Stallone himself co-wrote, follows in the tradition of the previous films and features veteran action movie stars. As in the previous two films, in this one, the protagonists are always indestructible with gunfire and explosions in every scene. The previous two films reached the top of the box office from the first weekend of release, but such a leak could postpone the premiere or affect the number of viewers who will come to the cinemas.

It's quite rare for unreleased films to leak online. The latest example is 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where a half-finished cut of the film was leaked before its final theatrical release.

As Variety notes, young men in particular have watched the previous two films and are comfortable with torrenting, which is another reason for Lionsgate to be concerned. If there’s any indication that this leak will cost millions on August 15th, it’s sure to make headlines. The film’s production company, Nu, has tried to sue torrent pirates several times in the past, but its efforts have been largely unsuccessful.