Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is already making headlines during its home release, with the movie being leaked in its entirety.
Spider-Verse 2 became the biggest animated feature in studio history for Sony Pictures, grossing nearly $700 million in revenue at the box office while earning rave reviews.
And while this animated sequel didn't suffer from spoilery pre-release leaks as much as predecessors like Spider-Man: No Way Home, it's now fallen prey to a recent online trend that's become prevalent.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Leaks Online
Shortly after making its digital release, Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was uploaded in its entirety to Twitter (now officially named X).
While the leak has now been removed from the platform, Spider-Verse 2 was available for public free viewing for over 12 hours after being posted at 7:49 pm ET on Monday, August 7, during which time it accumulated over 340,000 views.
In April, The Super Mario Bros. Movie wound up being posted to X during its theatrical run with a fan recording the entire film on their phone and uploading it.
Two months later, another fan took camera footage of The Flash in their local theater and posted the entire film online, which came only a week after the DCU movie debuted worldwide.
After X CEO Elon Musk increased the capacity for video length and size limits as a perk for Blue subscribers, monthly members were allowed to post videos up to two hours long and with file sizes as large as 8 GB.
How Spider-Verse 2 Leak Continues Unfortunate Trend
Today, piracy and leaks have become more normal, with information sometimes coming through usually reputable sources as fans try to seek out spoilers by any means necessary.
There will also always be a sect of the fandom who opts to forgo the experience and quality that comes with being in a theater in order to get the most comfort possible when taking in new blockbuster movies.
Unfortunately, with X's new policy on allowing subscribers to upload videos of this length, there is no way to deter or stop users from engaging in these practices with any movie that releases in theaters.
Even with the movie only being online for half a day, the chances are high that plenty of fans were able to watch the movie more than once, potentially quelling many viewers' need to revisit the highly-successful Sony sequel.
Sony's done as much as it can to promote the movie with a few minutes of free footage released officially, although this leak trend doesn't seem set to end anytime soon.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now available for purchase digitally.
