It had all the cast reunited from the first Fast and Furious movie and this excited movie goers so much that not only did the film make over $600 million dollars worldwide and become a DVD/Blu-ray smash hit but it was the most pirated film in 2011 according to torrentfreak.com

Fast Five starring Vin Diesel was downloaded more than 9 million times, in second place was The Hangover Part II and in third place was Thor. The argument for Pirated movies has been a long and intense once, but all 3 of these films were big hits at the cinema with each one taking over or close to half a billion dollars in box office takings.

I'm not sure what this list tells us, I'll let you make up your own minds, cinema attendances were down this year but were in the middle of a world wide financial crisis, personally I think that on the whole people who will see the film in cinemas will do and then maybe down load the movie, people who download the movie and don't see it in cinemas would never anyway. This is an interesting list so for your pleasure take a look at the top 10 most downloaded films of 2011 and by all means let me know your thoughts.

Disney are causing a bit of a storm with cinema distributors because they want to release the forthcoming Tim Burton adaptation of Alice in Wonderland on DVD/Blu-ray only 13 weeks (about 3 months) after it hits the cinemas in the UK and Netherlands.

The usual window is between 4 and 6 months depending on the film, and as Alice in Wonderland is expected to be a big hit it will most likely be 6 months which would give the multiplexes more time to make money, so chains like Vue Entertainment Ltd are threatening to pull the film altogether.

Is this window too short? The cinema's argument is that this will reduce the number of bums on seats in theatres as the cinema goes will be aware they can buy the film soon and hence reduce the money taken for a film at the box office, which also could have a knock on effect on cinema ticket prices for all.

10 years ago the window was 6 months or more, and there was a time when the window was even up to a year, although the market back then was more leaned towards the rental market and the internet was not about, hence no digital downloads, and piracy although an issue wasn't by any means as big as it is now.

Why then does the likes of Disney want such a short window? Is it to tackle piracy? Is it to cash in on the hype of a film in such a fickle here today gone tomorrow market? Or is it simply that home cinema can fulfill the movie goers as readily as an expensive visit to the cinema these days?

Just think if Avatar has a 13 week window it would be scheduled for release around 15th March during a time which it will surely be still riding high at the cinema, or maybe that would be the best time to release it?

I can see the argument for and against this, but I must admit that I did prefer it in the days when you were unable to watch a film for a period of months after leaving the cinema and then enjoy it even more when the VHS of the film was available for rent.