Content Leak / Film

Film — Animation

• Frozen:
  • Prior to the first film's release, a lot of early production concept art and story points were leaked. These included the long haired, "Snow Queen"-looking Elsa in a hat and plot details from when Elsa was still the villain.
  • Promotional images of Anna and Elsa's near-finalized designs were accidentally leaked in early 2013, weeks before they were meant to be revealed. As these were leaks, they weren't even the official models. The images used older, less polished (alternatively, "more ugly") models, more specifically the Dreamworks Face image was used for Elsa. This caused some fan backlash until their smoother looking official designs were revealed a bit afterwards.
  • In mid-January 2020, exactly a month and a half after the film's sequel was released in theaters and a week before the sing-along release of that film, two different high-quality rips of the film were illegally leaked onto the Internet: one with English subtitles burned into the file and the other without them.
• A high-quality rip of Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return sourced from United Airlines' in-flight entertainment library was illegally leaked online a month before its Blu-Ray release.
• An unfinished rough cut of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, along with many screenshots that were given to a few fans by one of the film's producers, was leaked online in May 2020, a month before the film's supposed original 20th Anniversary Blu-ray release from Shout! Factory. Uploads of the leak were quickly reported and taken down due to severe Hype Backlash and anger from the Thomas & Friends fandom, especially from those yearning for the official release of the film's director's cut. Thankfully, it didn't affect the Blu-Ray release, as the deleted scenes are still legally included as a bonus feature of the final release.
• An interesting case happened with We Bare Bears: The Movie. The movie was meant to come out on digital on June 8, 2020, but was then moved to June 30 at the last minute. However, sites like Amazon and Fandango were not informed of this, and the movie went up during the overnight hours of the original date; it was reverted to pre-order status during business hours that day (movie purchases made during that period remained available).
• An image of Lola Loud in her outfit from The Loud House Movie was leaked on Instagram a few days before the official announcement.
• On July 27th, 2022, the entire animatic for the cancelled Popeye movie was leaked online.
• A few days before the official release of the trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a Discord discussion was shared to social media that leaked Mario's design via a McDonald's promotion. The same picture also revealed that there would be a promotion celebrating the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. that featured franchises such as Tom and Jerry and Teen Titans Go!.
• On January 21, 2024, Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie was leaked online in its entirety. The film was scheduled to be released on Netflix later in the year.
• Prior to its official release on September 26, 2023, Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! was leaked in its entirety by an anonymous user on 4chan, leading people to speculate it was one of Warner Bros. Discovery's post-merger tax write-offs until the writer of the film cleared up the misconception on his Twitter / X account.

Film — Live-Action

By Studio:

• The 2014 Sony Pictures leak saw the compromise of several unreleased films such as Annie (2014), Still Alice, Mr. Turner, and To Write Love On Her Arms, a leaked script from Spectre, and several documents detailing behind the scenes incidents during the production of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Ghostbusters (2016), Steve Jobs and several other unreleased projects.

By Work:

• A screener for American Gangster had a leaked a couple of weeks before the film was released.
• A famous example was the first American Pie, which had a workprint (bearing the original title of the film, "Great Falls High") released in-between its theatrical run and DVD release. The workprint leak eventually led the Weitz Brothers to release both a rated-R and "unrated" version of the film, which utilized some of the material found in the workprint.
• The entire plot of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) was leaked through a 4Chan post a few days after the first teaser came out. The leak was based on a test screening version and had notable differences from the final release (such as Gadget being the one kidnapped by the villain rather than Monterey Jack, Ellie having more scenes where she behaved more like a Loony Fan of the Rescue Rangers and the main villain being not an aged up Peter Pan but Pluto).
• The design for the live-action Clifford the Big Red Dog was revealed via a leak of a Carl's Jr. promotion.
• In early March 2024, the entire plot of Coyote vs. Acme was leaked on Pastebin by an anonymous individual days before it was announced by screenwriter Samy Burch that conversations about the film are still ongoing and that it's still being screened to prospective buyers, and many elements from it are surprisingly accurate with behind-the-scenes details from the film^note such as the Albuquerque Carrot Festival, the motel where Wile E. Coyote's lawyer lives and the cage in which Foghorn Leghorn gets imprisoned near the end of the film. The exact source of the leak remains unknown^note there's even a statement from the leaker before the plot that outright says "Don't ask where I got this from", though some people have speculated that the leaker in question secretly possesses a copy of the movie that Warner Bros. doesn't know about.
• Deadpool (2016): In 2014 test footage of what would eventually become the opening scene leaked online. Positive reaction to the footage convinced Fox to move forward on producing the full movie. It's never been confirmed who was responsible for the leak and the DVD Commentary notes that there's a limited number of people who had access to the footage. The writers imply that Ryan Reynolds did it while Reynolds has pointed the finger at Tim Miller or Fox executives who were trying to gauge interest.
• Dolittle was illegally leaked online two weeks after its theatrical release.
• The Elite Squad leaked two months before release, and became a piracy hit. It still got great box office upon its official release, nevertheless.
• The Expendables 3 got leaked almost a month before it was released.
• On May 6th, 2023, the trailer for the Five Nights at Freddy's movie was leaked online.
• Godzilla vs. Kong: That Mechagodzilla would be the main villain and that Kong and Goji would team up to beat him was leaked several months before the release of the film.
• Screeners for The Hateful Eight were leaked online some days before it began its theatrical run.
• The Hurt Locker was leaked 5 months before it released in the United States.
• A version of the script of Joker (2019) got leaked a few months before its release. It's unclear if it was the shooting script or a draft but it was verified as accurate when the movie came out (albeit with some tweaks).
• Behind-the-scenes images of A Loud House Christmas were leaked on Reddit in May 2021.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • The first trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron was scheduled to release during an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it leaked online nearly a week early. Marvel Studios' response was to tweet "Dammit, Hydra."
  • Marvel and Tom Holland later staged some announcements as Holland "accidentally" leaking information, as jokes on how he Cannot Keep a Secret. First he revealed the teaser poster for Avengers: Infinity War (and only afterward saw the note that it was confidential). Then he gave a status update saying they were about to begin the second Spider-Man film, but he didn't have anything to share because he only just got the script — which was clearly labeled with the title Spider-Man: Far From Home.
  • Mark Ruffalo leaked the first 20 minutes of Thor: Ragnarok's audio by forgetting to end an Instagram livestream before attending the premiere, and his phone continued streaming from his pocket. Also, a high-definition copy leaked online more than a month before its official home video release date, ostensibly due to a mixup between Apple (iTunes) and Vudu's "Movies Anywhere" streaming service, which made the film immediately available to anyone who had pre-ordered it from the former.
  • On April 15, 2019, five minutes of footage from Avengers: Endgame, including clips taken from the second and third acts of the film, were leaked online with Arabian subtitles, a full ten days before the film was officially released. The Russo brothers issued a letter telling fans again not to spoil the film to others and used the hashtag #DontSpoilTheEndgame.
  • The first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home leaked, along with photos of Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Jamie Foxx, all reprising their roles from previous Spider-Man film continuities. An official version of the trailer was uploaded the next day. Many, many other related leaks would eventually follow, so much so that No Way Home is apparently now a serious contender for the dubious honor of being the leakiest movie ever. Sony notably tried to keep some details under wraps, mainly the other Spider-Men, but even that got out way ahead of the film's release.
  • Trademarks for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Avengers: Secret Wars, Captain America: New World Order, and Thunderbolts leaked a day before they were officially announced in July 2022.
  • The script for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was leaked a week ahead of the world premiere. Also a plot leak was leaked a little bit after Comic Con that had a lot of elements that stayed in the final film.
• Cinefex Issue #170, which was written and prepared before theaters shut down globally in 2020 and The New Mutants was delayed for the fourth time, featured high-quality scans of certain scenes from the movie, such as a shot from Magik's confrontation with the Demon Bear, and multiple plot spoilers. The issue was originally planned to release after the movie did, but due to the magazine's publication schedule, it came out on the date it was already scheduled for with no adjustments to the content that was included.
• Screeners for The Revenant leaked online some days before it began its theatrical run.
• Skinamarink was originally limited to a festival circuit mid-2022, but one of the festival platforms for at-home viewing options accidentally allowed the entire film to be downloaded, causing it to be reuploaded onto YouTube and other platforms months before its wider theatrical and streaming releases in early 2023.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
  • Posters, standees and various other pieces of work revealed both Sonic's Unintentional Uncanny Valley original design and the more beloved updated design long before their trailers, thanks to leakers.
  • The entire plot of the film leaked via a Reddit AMA roughly one year before its release, barring a few details that were added or changed late in production.
• Spider-Man 3:
  • An unfinished (and ultimately unused) trailer for the film leaked more than a year before the film's official release, featuring unfinished VFX shots and temp music (along with a look at Venom, who had not been officially released at that point and had a slightly-different design to the final film). The Ant Farm (the VFX company whose watermark appeared on the trailer) denied responsibility for the leak, with it being suggested that a break in the delivery chain was to blame.
  • The Editor's Cut (essentially Spider-Man 3.1'', featuring additional scenes and an alternate score added by the film's editor) was leaked through Amazon and could briefly be streamed online prior to its official listing and inclusion on the Blu-Ray Limited Edition Collection.
• Star Wars:
  • A copy of Revenge of the Sith leaked several hours before the film was officially screened at its premiere.
  • Months before the official release of The Force Awakens, the vast majority of the film's plot was online.
  • Every major plot point from The Rise of Skywalker was leaked months before the film premiered on Reddit, with many not believing them until the film released (partly because of a number of other "leaks" which contained false information that came out around the correct one). John Boyega's shooting script was also stolen and placed on eBay, but in this case it was recovered before any damage could be done.
  • Due to Jiang Wen's limited knowledge of the English language, he accidentally let it slip that Chirrut dies during the Rogue One presentation at the 2016 Star Wars Celebration event while explaining his character. Thankfully, he didn't spoil everyone else's deaths in the process.
• An IMAX-formatted copy of Top Gun: Maverick, bearing Korean subtitles, leaked several weeks after the film's theater release, throwing a wrench into Paramount Pictures' plans to hold off on a digital release for the film until closer to the end of its theatrical run.
• The entire plot of Wonder Woman 1984 was leaked on Reddit a year before its release, and proven to be correct once the film released.
• A script for X-Men: The Last Stand was leaked a year prior to the film's release, and many of its elements are still in the final movie.
• An unfinished version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine got leaked to the internet about a month before the completed film was released. With a number of unfinished visual effects shots included in this version, viewers have argued that this version is actually better than the theatrical release, albeit for the wrong reasons.
• Zack Snyder's Justice League accidentally got leaked via the HBO Max listing for Tom & Jerry ten days ahead of its intented release. It was fixed within two hours.
• Screeners for Zero Dark Thirty got leaked about 2 weeks before this film was released.

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