What's the threat?
If downloaded and installed on your system, these misleading movie files (posted by cybercriminals) can expose your computer to a circus of malicious software (malware). In the past (and the present), malware associated with The Avengers have included Trojans, Droppers, Keyloggers and Spyware.  These malware types are created and used by attackers to log your every keystroke, to drop and install additional malware on to the machine or to open you computer with the intent to steal your information.

Another emerging trend are for these falsely named movie files to download and install Unwanted Applications on to a users computer. Unwanted Applications get downloaded and installed on to a users computer automatically and without user's consent and once installed can be very problematic to remove and bog down the system, slowing the performance of a computer considerably.  Thirtyseven4 considers and tags these questionable applications as a ‘Potentially Unwanted Application’ under our detection.

Below are specific examples of Malware (Unwanted Applications) that resulted in the initial SECONDS of searching for a free copy of “The Avengers” to download.  All the files downloaded and automatically installed on to our test systems after we clicked on the file to “watch” the movie.

Example 1: 
Unwanted Application Name: MyPC Backup
Installation Location: C:\Program Files\MyPC Backup\




Example 2:
Unwanted Application Name: Mix DJ Search (Toolbar)
Installation Location: C:\Program Files\mixidj\mixidj




Example 3 & 4 (Browser Search Plug-ins):
Unwanted Application Names: Yontoo & LyricsTube
Installation Locations: C:\Program Files\Yontoo & C:\Program Files\LyricsTube




Conclusion:
With rentals of New Releases or Stock Titles costing $1.00 or less from a Redbox or any movie rental company, the question becomes- is it really worth the risk of searching and downloading “free” movies from the Internet?  Our Thirtyseven4 answer, steeped in research and data is "No!".  A couple bucks for a legit rental is far better than the invasion of privacy and time that Malware brings.