A video meme Twitter account has used the site’s Twitter Blue video feature to upload the Illumination film “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in its entirety, where it was seen by millions of users before being taken down.
The movie, which was posted on Saturday evening in two parts by a page with 1.1 million followers titled “vids that go hard,” stayed online for at least seven hours before being taken down by Twitter moderators. Forbes reports that the video was watched at least 9 million times.
The leak was possible thanks to a feature available exclusively to Twitter Blue subscribers that allows them to upload high quality videos of up to one hour in length. On Sunday morning, after the video was taken down, the owner of the account responded by posting the DreamWorks animated film “Bee Movie” in the same two-part format. That, too, was taken down.
TheWrap has reached out to the film’s distributor, Universal Pictures, for comment.
Since its purchase by Elon Musk last year, Twitter has seen significant layoffs. This past January, Bloomberg reported that Twitter was signifcantly paring down its content moderation team following the layoffs of 3,700 employees and the resignation of hundreds more in November 2022.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” meanwhile, has become the first animated movie since the pandemic began to gross $1 billion at the global box office.
