The Tunnel Movie (original) (raw)

In 2011, The Tunnel was first released to the world - in cinemas, on cable television, via an iPad app, on DVD… and via BitTorrent all at the same time.

Yep, it was given away to watch and share for free online, making it probably one of the only films in history to be able to legitimately claim a piracy rate of zero.

How and why did this happen?

Well, the brainchild of Enzo Tedeschi & Julian Harvey during the infancy of Kickstarter and IndieGogo, the pair set out to build their own version of crowdfunding with a website that pre-sold each frame of the unmade film for $1.

The promise they made in exchange, was that everyone’s contribution would not only buy them their frame memorabilia and their chance to see the film, but buy the internet the opportunity to see the film.

In addition to sending out personalized individual digital frames from the film to backers, the film was officially released for free on BitTorrent alongside all the traditional releases - the end result was an explosion of viewership around the globe for the humble Australian film, amassing over 25M views and downloads across the internet.

It has been estimated that that’s a global audience size roughly the equivalent of a $250M box office.

A decade on, the film is still a fan favorite, regularly making Top 10 Found Footage Horror lists and inviting speculation and debate around the film’s mythology.