A man who stole screeners from a movie lot and posted them online has been fined more than a million dollars, THR is reporting.

Not only that, but he also narrowly avoided a year in jail as Government prosecutors had recommended a custodial sentence.

Ex-studio employee William Kyle Morarity pinched screeners for The Peanuts Movie and The Revenant and posted them online before the films were released in cinemas. The Revenant alone was downloaded more than 1 million times.

Williams stole the screener while he was working for a studio, which Attorney for the central district of California, Eileen M Decker, was particularly annoyed about in a press release.

Press

"The film industry creates thousands of jobs in Southern California," says Decker. "The defendant's illegal conduct caused significant harm to the victim movie studio. The fact that the defendant stole these films while working on the lot of a movie studio makes his crime more egregious."

Morarity was sentenced to eight months home detention, plus two months probation, and to pay $1.12 million to studio 20th Century Fox.

Prison was ruled out, apparently, because Morarity is unemployed and on benefits and supporting a wife and four children aged 6 or under - one of whom is reportedly severely autistic.

Which, as THR points out, makes you wonder where he's going to come up with over a million dollars.

The Revenant won three Academy Awards during this year's ceremony and took $184mm at the box office. The Peanuts Movie didn't win any Oscars but it still managed to take $140mm in worldwide box office.

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