It looks like Lionsgate isn't too worried about the torrent leak that led to a DVD-quality version of The Expendables 3 hitting the web three weeks early. But is it good for marketing or will the leak lead to lower box office numbers than initially anticipated?

Torrent Leak Of 'Expendables 3' Happens 3 Weeks Before Release Date

During an editorial on Monday on The Verge, David Pierce said that he thought the leak would do wonders for the movie because after watching it, he realized it was worth seeing on the big screen.

"I'm already counting down the days until I can see it in Imax," Pierce wrote. "Maybe one leak will change the industry, maybe it won't. But it won't hurt The Expendables 3."

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But studios don't feel the same way as Pierce does concerning the leak. According to Variety, a study of piracy shows that it isn't an effective promotional tool.

Pre-release piracy of this kind has a particularly harmful effect on box office, according to a study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers. On average, movies that are leaked before theatrical debut have 19% lower box-office revenue compared with titles pirated after theatrical release, the study found.

"There might be people who pirated the movie and will go see it anyway - I'm not disputing that," said Michael Smith, a professor of information technology and marketing at CMU's Heinz College school of public policy, and one of the report's authors. "But the main effect is (piracy) hurts sales."

In a recent National Bureau of Economic Research book chapter, Smith and his CMU colleagues found that 16 of 19 papers published in peer-reviewed academic journals concluded that piracy harms media sales.

As of now Lionsgate has yet to comment on the leak, but when The Expendables 3 hits theaters on August 15, the numbers won't lie as to if people truly wanted to see it in theaters.

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The Expendables 3, Movies