Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok is apparently being pirated mercilessly

Taika Waititi's box office smash Thor Ragnarok wasn't due to hit streaming services until February 20.

But the film has leaked early - and is being pirated mercilessly on torrent sites.

As Gizmodo reports, the leak reportedly came when pre-orders for the movie were accidentally approved early through on-demand service Vudu.

Within hours, the film had appeared on torrent sites and was topping download stats. One torrent had been downloaded 15,000 times.

lol i was thinking how i wanted to watch thor again but the torrent hadnt drop yet and then i went to rarbg and there it was like... thank you universe and ppl who leak stuff

— steph▪︎somni (@cateblanchatt) January 21, 2018

TorrentFreak quoted one Vudu user from Reddit who'd been given access to the film early.

"I pre-ordered Thor Ragnarok on Vudu yesterday and it links it to my iTunes also. But curiously it showed up in my iTunes library this morning (pre-orders shouldn't). And now I can watch the full movie in HD.

"I obviously downloaded it right away. I know its supposed to come out February 20."

Waititi's comical take on the Marvel super hero was a box office smash upon its release in October, raking in $852 million.

It was also a hit with critics, scoring a 92 per cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.