Iranians can easily access pirated copies of American films months before they open in the U.S., and the state-run IRNA news agency is already badmouthing Argo reports Yahoo News in “Iran sees conspiracy in box office success of Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’”.

And a reviewer for the Iranian-based website Moviemag wrote:

Argo makes the people of Iran look like they have no self-determination, and indisputably support violence… For me, as an Iranian … this makes [the storyline behind] Argo much less believable.

Meantime, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency has explained away Argo’s #2 box office ranking in the US and Canada as the product of filmmakers buying tickets en masse and giving them away to random people.

[Thanks to David Klaus for the story.]