AceShowbiz -

"The Expendables 3" arrives early in its DVD-quality copy via torrent sites. The actioner led by Sylvester Stallone has been illegally downloaded nearly 189,000 times in just 24 hours, while the film itself won't hit U.S. theaters until August 15.

Back in 2009, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" also leaked ahead of its theatrical release but it was available on Megaupload only in its rough cut. Bronx resident Gilberto Sanchez was arrested for illegally uploading the film and sentenced to a year in prison. Megaupload was later shut down and MPAA is suing the defunct website and seeking monetary damages.

The third installment of "The Expendables" series is projected to open more than $20 million on its debut weekend with young men dominating the audiences. Whether the leak hurts the film remains to be seen, but young males are indeed the biggest users of illegal file-sharing websites.

It's hard to track the original source of a leak, but TorrentFreak has traced the alleged leaker of "The Expendables 3" to "an entity known as Drarbg" which could be either a single person or a group of people specializing with leaking movies online. Lionsgate hasn't commented on the matter.

Directed by Patrick Hughes, the actioner stars Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kellan Lutz, and Kelsey Grammer. Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford are among the cast members as well.