"The Interview" is an online hit – especially among pirates

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Sony’s controversial, to-be-released/not-to-be-released/to-be-released-after-all, potentially-responsible-for-a-recent-hacking movie The Interview is a hit among the online community, but it isn’t necessarily good news for the beleaguered motion picture studio.
The film, which also hit theaters on Christmas Day, is available on Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft’s Xbox Video and the website SeetheInterview.com, according to Variety reports. It can be rented for $5.99 or purchased for $14.99, and it was the No. 1 title in the Google Play store and topped the movies section on YouTube as of Thursday.
However, Mashable noted that The Interview had also been illegally downloaded more than 900,000 times in the first 24 hours after it first appeared on various torrent websites. In addition, The Verge noted that a errors on SeetheInterview.com made it possible for anyone who had rented the movie to download it or share the film’s URL with non-paying customers.
Kernel, the site in charge of digital rentals for the Sony film, did not respond to the website’s request for comment but tweeted that it was working on a fix for the issue. The site also experienced brief delays, with multiple users complained of receiving error messages when they attempted to view the Seth Rogan-James Franco movie, the Hollywood Reporter noted.
While The Verge said that the movie’s “digital takings were almost certainly hurt by piracy” and other issues, it also reportedly brought in $1 million in Christmas day earnings at the box office, despite playing in just 331 small, independent theaters. In comparison, the top earner was Unbroken with an estimated $15.6 million, followed by Disney’s Into the Woods with $13.6 million and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies with $12.7 million.
Last week, federal law enforcement officials revealed that North Korea was believed to be behind a cyberattack which wreaked havoc on Sony Pictures’ computer system. That attack, linked to plans to release the controversial comedy which depicts Rogen and Franco as news personnel recruited by the CIA to assassinate that country’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
The hackers responsible for the attack, calling themselves the Guardians of Peace (GOP), had threatened a “9/11” style attack on any theater intending to show the movie. As a result, theater chains Carmike, Regal, AMC and Cineplex announced that they would not screen the movie as originally planned, leading Sony to temporarily scrap plans to release “The Interview.”
The company reversed course again earlier this week, opting to release the movie after all.
“It has always been Sony’s intention to have a national platform on which to release this film,” Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Entertainment, said in a statement, according to the Associated Press (AP). “This release represents our commitment to our filmmakers and free speech. While we couldn’t have predicted the road this movie traveled to get to this moment, I’m proud our fight was not for nothing and that cyber criminals were not able to silence us.”
“We never stopped pursuing as wide a release as possible for The Interview,” he continued. “It was essential for our studio to release this movie, especially given the assault upon our business and our employees by those who wanted to stop free speech. We chose the path of digital distribution first so as to reach as many people as possible on opening day, and we continue to seek other partners and platforms to further expand the release.”
“No doubt the issues we have confronted these last few weeks will not end with this release, but we are gratified to have stood together and confident in our future,” Lynton concluded. “I want to thank everyone at Sony Pictures for their dedication and perseverance through what has been an extraordinary and difficult time.”
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.