Sony: 'The Interview' Will Have a Limited Theatrical Release

New submitter clovis writes: It's not over until it's over. Sony Pictures has announced that The Interview will be getting a limited theatrical release after all. The Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain has authorization to show the film, and The Plaza Theater in Atlanta will show it as well. It's not yet clear whether the major theater chains will choose to show the movie despite the threats against them. Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Layton said, "[W]e are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience." There are unconfirmed reports that Sony will make the movie available over video-on-demand as well.

Comments

They realized how badly they screwed up

[gurps_npc]

The movie probably sucks. But bowing down to pressure from North Korea is ridiculous.

I am sure Hitler did not like The Great Dictator, but if he had tried to blackmail a US company into cancelling it, we would have laughed at him.

Sony should have done the same. I don't care what they got from the stolen emails, the only way to deal with terrorists demanding obedience is a bullet to their head, not a bow to to their feet.

Re:They realized how badly they screwed up

[Sowelu]

If you listened to the interviews from the very beginning, the Sony Pictures CEO's line has basically always been "Guys, I can't _officially_ say that we're still releasing it until we negotiate more, but I swear to god it's still going to happen unless the theaters are even dumber than I thought". Dude sounded really pissed and barely restrained by his PR department; I'm convinced that it was 100% playing hardball with distributors and 0% international politics.

Honestly I'm amazed at the reporting on this. THEATERS caved. Sony said "uh, we're not going to open the show in like two theaters nationwide", theaters took about a week to snap out of "oh god horror the turrists" mode...but it seemed pretty obvious from the beginning that that was going to be the timeline here.

Re:They realized how badly they screwed up

[gurps_npc]

Wrong. That is Sony propaganda. Everything the Sony CEO said was in service of his own cowardice. Yes, some theaters backed out. Others major movie theater chains BEGGED Sony to release the film.

More importantly, Sony could have released it direct to Video, to HBO, etc. You don't need to 'look for other ways' and if Netflix, HBO, and Hulu were 'afraid of getting hacked' They could simply have given it to the Pirate Bay.

This was a decision made by Sony, not anyone else. You on the other hand have fallen for a pack of lies.

not quite

[s.petry]

It simply demonstrates the sham that we were told a week ago today. There is no threat from the DPRK, just fear mongering typical political spin for an agenda the people are not privy to see. The Intercept has an article hinting at what I'm sure others guessed here.

Wired had the article last week demonstrating how week the link is to the Sony hack and the DPRK.

I normally enjoy Seth Rogan's movies, but in this case I'll wait for the TV edition. I don't need to pay for the propaganda machine willfully.

Torturing is OK. But don't touch Hollywood !

[Stuyvesant]

This story has so many crazy angles, it will make a nice movie of itself in a couple of years! One of the things is the extremist protection of 'intellectual (*cough*) property'. It's OK that the Norks have a Hitler-like regime, that they put little children in concentration camps and have slave camps. The hunger & starvation is no problem. It's also OK that they abduct civilians of South Korea and Japan, sink enemy ships, make nuclear weapons or trade rockets & launchers with Iran. No, the real problem starts when they (alledgedly) hack a media company. Course, you know, the worst of the worst people are *pirates* and *hackers*. That's how powerful the intellectual property complex has gotten.

Where is your white tipped cane?

[s.petry]

Nowhere do I even imply that this is about money for Sony. This is about demonizing the DPRK, not money. It's about bringing back CISPA/SOPA legislation, and demonizing hackers in general. It's politics, not money driven.

Before you attempt to make a false claim the answer is "N", I'm not a fan of the DPRK Government and don't intend any implication that they are the good guys. Quite the contrary, if everything we are told is true they are a despicable dictatorship. At the same time, lying to topple dictators for a political agenda has not turned out well anywhere else. Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan are easy examples of lies to topple Governments that have been horrific for the populations living in that country. We don't conquer to establish a better Government for them, we topple to destabilize and exploit resources.

Further, we can't topple the DPRK without pissing off China and suffering severe consequences.