this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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I'm not sure of any evidence suggesting that piracy impacts the bottom line in a meaningful way. The piracy problem is primarily one of competition and innovation--people pay for things they find valuable and convenient, and if the barrier to payment is too high, they won't pay it.
Highly pirated movies tend to be the most successful, most profitable ones. I don't know of any high profile, highly regarded pieces of media that didn't earn their investment back purely because everyone pirated it instead of paying for it.
Some links you might find interesting: https://copia.is/library/the-carrot-or-the-stick/
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/09/22/eu-piracy-rates-tick-back-up-in-study-that-shows-income-inequality-and-less-legal-options-to-blame/
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/07/12/how-not-overly-enforcing-its-ip-universal-made-the-minions-ubiquitous-and-beloved/
That last one is an especially interesting case study, albeit a perhaps accidental one.
The key here is that as a business your objective isn't to capture every last dollar that you potentially could have if every single use of your IP was completely in your control--you want to make enough people want to pay you so that you can be profitable. Pirates are often just providing free marketing to someone that may or may not have ever heard of your product.