‘The Odyssey’ Leaked on X: High-Quality Bootleg Seen by Millions in Hours Before Takedown — SkimNews
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- A high-quality bootleg of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" went viral on X on July 25, when a post at 2:25 p.m. PT amplified an upload from a now-suspended account, racking up 2.1 million views within two and a half hours before a takedown notice replaced the stream.
- Clone copies of the bootleg remain on X as of July 26, but most have been flooded by mislabeled files that actually play Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" Rickroll prank.
- Universal Pictures issued a statement saying it "immediately initiated takedown protocols" and will "pursue all appropriate remedies to protect our content and intellectual property rights," as confirmed by Variety.
- The Odyssey earned another $87 million domestically in its second weekend despite the leak, with demand for Imax 70mm tickets remaining strong.
- Elon Musk, owner of X, had separately attacked the film's casting, denouncing DEI influence on Academy Awards eligibility and announcing his AI tool Grok Imagine would produce a "historically accurate" version of the film to release this year.
Why it matters: The leak showed how quickly unauthorized high-quality copies can spread on X — 2.1 million views in 2.5 hours — yet 'The Odyssey' still earned $87 million in its second weekend, undercutting the piracy-as-box-office-killer narrative. The irony: X owner Elon Musk publicly criticized the film's casting while his own platform hosted the bootleg, and he is simultaneously using the controversy to promote his Grok Imagine AI product.
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