The Wolf of Wall Street most illegally downloaded film in 2014

Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street and Disney's animated fantasy hit Frozen were the two most pirated films of the year, according to a firm tracking illegal downloads.

The list of this year's 20 most illegally downloaded movies was compiled by piracy tracker Excipio, with the details widely reported on Monday by trade media including Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

The firm tallied "torrent" downloads, where computer users illegally share movies and other media over the internet, for the period from January 1 to December 23, according to Variety.

Excipio said The Wolf of Wall Street was illegally downloaded more than 30 million times, while Frozen was pirated more than 29.9 million times.

In third place was RoboCop, with a little less than 29.9 million illegal downloads, though this included both 2014's re-booted version and the 1987 original.

Space drama Gravity, directed by Mexico's Alfonso Cuaron, was downloaded just under 29.4 million times.

Popular among the pirated films were several superhero adventures, including Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and X-Men: Days of Future Past.