Written by Jackson West
Posted Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 7:35 PM PT

Spidey 3 Online Ahead of U.S. Release

It’s official: Spider-Man 3 has appeared online as an unauthorized download on public torrent trackers ahead of the release in theaters across the U.S. Just today, VCDQuality indexed two slightly different versions from the same source in China, presumably, as the recording is in English with Chinese subtitles according to one downloader who’s seen a portion.

Here are some stills that should give a good idea of the picture quality, and here’s a sample video (for now). “I’ve watched some bad releases in my time but this is a joke,” said one commenter.

The one from the aptly named Canalstreet crew is reportedly slightly better, but still bad even for an in-theater recording on a video camera based on further reviews in the forums. There’s also a French copy available, though again, it may be the same source with new subtitles overlaid.

Whether this will help or hurt ticket sales for the most expensive film in history is anyone’s guess. I suspect that the opening weekend will probably be one of the strongest ever, if only because who would want to watch a theme park ride alone at home when part of the show is going to the theater to see the nerds in costume?

So even if you happen to be shopping for DVDs in Shanghai, better to catch it in the theater. In the meantime, Yahoo! Movies has an exclusive clip and plenty of other completely legal videos.

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Topic: P2P

Comments (12)

We are quite well versed on this type of stuff. We are a metrics firm located in San Francisco that, among other things, tracks this content for media companies so they can plan events, advertising, syndication, and plan new business models more effectively. It was interesting to see it spread in the thousands per second across the globe. I think Sony should have released it in the US., Japan, and China at the same time. When you are charging 10 dollars a ticket, releasing it late in your single most lucrative market is probably not wise.

Rajeev A. Kadam — 8:05 PM on May 3, 2007 Reply
I don’t know about you but the Spiderman series has had a declining rate of production (not in action, but in script quality). The first one was great and very true to the original cartoons/comic. But I found the second one to be really really boring and they took cheap liberties with throwing in ‘action scenes’ when they really weren’t needed ..sorta pandering to an easily pacified Audience. Is this really the most expensive film produced to date? I find that hard to believe…

live tv — 1:51 AM on May 4, 2007 Reply
What’s the point of this post on this site? What does this have to do with tv, new or otherwise?

The quality of this rip is awful, anyway. Asian subs, sloping video, heads and shadows everywhere.

heddy — 2:15 AM on May 4, 2007 Reply
potahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jhay — 3:44 AM on May 4, 2007 Reply
89.com

jhay — 3:44 AM on May 4, 2007 Reply
Is anybody actually suprised that this was released? Don’t forget the excellent Spider-man 2 that Centropy put out a few years ago. This is early days, more releases will come, starting with Telesyncs or re-dubbed R5 DVDs (effectively Telecines).

The movie will still make an absolute fortune. How do I know? Hey, I’m a member of staff at VCDQuality and I’ll be going to see the movie this weekend.

P.S. Don’t we own the rights to our screenshots on VCDQ? Don’t use our images without our permission ;o)

Neversoft — 5:37 AM on May 4, 2007 Reply
I really doubt this will affect the sailes of Spiderman 3 at the movie theatres, since everyone really has the desire to see it on the big screen.

Ricky — 8:54 AM on May 4, 2007 Reply
I plan on seeing this, this weekend. Tonight, I hopefully its not as bad as everyone is saying.

Mark — 9:57 AM on May 4, 2007 Reply
I’d rather just wait until a proper rip is out. I don’t see the point of having to endure through a sub par rip.

Motorcycle Guy — 1:00 PM on May 4, 2007 Reply
better quality bootleg should appear over the weekend.
People who download bootlegs don’t really care for the movie anyway (hence not wanting to pay the $10+)
Plenty of people will want to see Spiderman, so it shouldn’t affect ticket sales much.

DillDoe — 2:06 PM on May 4, 2007 Reply
well i just watched spiderman 3 online … he he on http://www.showstash.com

patrick — 10:12 AM on May 6, 2007 Reply
I just saw a part of one of the copies floating around, but I think seeing the original is much better.

I just ordered the DVD rental from Blockbuster online so it will be a great date nite at home.

Kenny — 2:53 PM on May 12, 2007 Reply