For a movie that wasn't even coming out at the beginning of the week, The Interview is ending it in style.
The Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy at the heart of the controversy involving Sony hackers racked up nearly $1 million on Christmas Day in 300 independent movie theaters around the country, according to Variety. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain, one of the staunchest supporters of screening the film, sold out all of its Christmas screenings in its 17 locations.
It's a decent haul for a movie that, due to threats of terrorism, was pulled by major theater chains such as AMC and Regal.
The Interview has also done well on video-on-demand platforms since its Wednesday release. While none of the sites has disclosed download or streaming numbers, Variety reports The Interview is the best-selling film on Google Play and YouTube Movies. And according to CNN, there were also 750,000 illegal downloads of the film on Thursday.
"The audience reaction was fantastic — the limited release, in under 10% of the amount of theaters originally planned, featured numerous sell-outs and a first-day gross over $1 million," said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony, in a statement to CNN.
You know every once in awhile you recognize that you are in the middle of a pivotal moment in history.
And we have had a lot of them recently. The first black president. The Affordable Care Act. The Climate Change agreement with China. The reopening of diplomatic relations with Cuba. The newly released Senate torture report. I could go on.
And this is another one.
It is the first time that we have seen hackers impact a major studio, or ANY large corporation, in such a dramatic fashion.
Even yesterday there was still disagreement over who exactly hacked Sony, and there was yet another hack on online gaming platforms yesterday as well.
So while The Interview may have ultimately benefited from all of the attention and goodwill that resulted from the Sony hack, it is unlikely that this is the last time this is going to happen.
I have no idea what this ultimately means going forward, but I am willing to bet that it will result in increased security and less internet freedom down the road.
This reminds of how to write a best-seller. Rule 1, have it banned in Boston.
ReplyDeleteWhat it means is, They got a bunch of publicity for a dog of a movie.
ReplyDeleteI think this was just part of their advertizing campaign.
What if North Korea did a movie about Sarah Palin's faked birth. How would the Pee's react?
ReplyDeleteNo, North Korea Didn’t Hack Sony
ReplyDeleteAll the evidence leads me to believe that the great Sony Pictures hack of 2014 is far more likely to be the work of one disgruntled employee facing a pink slip.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/24/no-north-korea-didn-t-hack-sony.html
The world will always be frightening until China is stopped. SO much happens with the regime that no one knows about. China is THE leader in internet attacks and hacking.
ReplyDeleteNo Wonder Sony Didn’t Want To Release ‘The Interview’
ReplyDeleteThose who have seen “The Interview” aren’t exactly raving about it. The mediocre film got more advance press than almost any other film in history. One has to wonder if Sony wasn’t behind it.
The movie is scoring just a 50 percent positive review from critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website.
It’s fairing even more poorly with top critics, who give it a measly 32 percent positive rating.
The film is doing better with regular fans, however. It gets a 73 percent “liked it” audience score from Rotten Tomatoes.
Critics say the satire about a television host and producer asked by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jung-un doesn’t deliver the goods.
“Characterizing it as satire elevates the creative execution of the film’s very silly faux assassination of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un far beyond what it merits,” writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times.
In the Village Voice, Stephanie Zacharek writes that “The Interview” is “contrived absurdity” and that it has very little payoff for all the trouble it caused.
http://www.alan.com/2014/12/26/no-wonder-sony-didnt-want-to-release-the-interview/