Paris - French citizens downloaded 13.5 million movies from file-sharing sites during May, while French movie theaters sold 12.2 million tickets, Reuters reported, citing a study by French anti-piracy group Alpa.

"This is a major phenomenon that could endanger the cinema and audiovisual industry," Alpa representative Frederic Delacroix told French newspaper Le Figaro.

The study also found that an average of 10 million movies are downloaded illegally in France each month, about 66% of them American films and 19% of them are French.

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