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Sony: 'The Interview' Will Have a Limited Theatrical Release 176

Posted by Soulskill from the it-was-all-a-viral-marketing-scheme dept.
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.
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Sony: 'The Interview' Will Have a Limited Theatrical Release More

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

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  • Limited Theatrical Release (Score:5, Insightful)

    by future assassin ( 639396 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @01:58PM (#48661557)

    aka we need to do whatever we can do still cash in on this other wise they just release it as normal.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by BarbaraHudson ( 3785311 )

      aka we need to do whatever we can do still cash in on this other wise they just release it as normal.

      Sony wasn't the one who pulled the plug - it was the 5 major movie chains. Now that "the ice is broken", maybe some of them will step up as well. After all, they know they'll have packed theatres and extra showings to fill the demand.

      • Re:Limited Theatrical Release (Score:5, Informative)

        by NatasRevol ( 731260 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:22PM (#48661763) Journal

        Uh, Sony pulled the plug too.

        It may have been after the major movie chains did so, but Sony didn't let it go to anyone else either. Until now.

        • Re:Limited Theatrical Release (Score:4, Informative)

          by bledri ( 1283728 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @03:55PM (#48662607)

          Uh, Sony pulled the plug too.

          It may have been after the major movie chains did so, but Sony didn't let it go to anyone else either. Until now.

          Actually, 9 out of the top ten [wikipedia.org] chains pulled the movie. Only #6, Marcus Theaters, didn't. They are less than half the size of #5 (Cineplex Entertainment). They have about 3% of the screens of the top five.

          It's hard to have a "blockbuster" release by opening only in the midwest on a limited number of screens. So Sony pulled it until they could negotiate with enough small players to make it worthwhile. I don't get all the hate toward Sony over this. It just seems like mob mentality to me, along with conflating Song Pictures with Sony BMG.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          So what did they actually pull the plug on, releasing the movie or a marketing campaign that came off rather badly and they are too scared to admit.

      • >After all, they know they'll have packed theatres and extra showings to fill the demand.

        Will they? This movie looks terrible, and there's only so much that a controversy will do to market crap.

        • >After all, they know they'll have packed theatres and extra showings to fill the demand.

          Will they? This movie looks terrible, and there's only so much that a controversy will do to market crap.

          Hey, Team America World Police was crap, but that didn't stop it. The English Patient should have been put out of it's misery after the first 20 minutes of nothing going on, but people watched it. Some of the Austin Powers stuff is "like, really, is that all you've got?" but people loved it. I'd rather watch Spaceballs a dozen times than any of them. (then again, any excuse is a good excuse for watching spaceballs :-)

          A century ago HL Mencken said "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the Am

      • it was the 5 major movie chains

        That's Sony's claim, the movie chains have a different story. My guess is Sony and the movie chains planned it together with hookers and blackjack. Blaming each other just means the rest of us will never know what happened.

    • not quite (Score:4, Interesting)

      by s.petry ( 762400 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:12PM (#48661679)

      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.

      • Well you can easily tell its a farce by how much special commentary a story gets on the news networks besides its being about North Korea (its like a episode and Pinky and The Brain). Unfortunately the ratio of seeing through the bullshit people vs omfg they're taking away out freedom people is 20/80 so....

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by halivar ( 535827 )

        It simply demonstrates the sham that we were told a week ago today.

        Yeah, that explains the complete fire sale on the film, because they're so sure of the demand. /tinfoil-hat

        • Where is your white tipped cane? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by s.petry ( 762400 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:52PM (#48662077)

          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.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by halivar ( 535827 )

            Nowhere do I even imply that this is about money for Sony

            No, but I am. Sony is not going to financially ruin itself, potentially shutter its multi-billion dollar film studio, out all of its own email and destroy multiple exec's careers out of solidarity with US foreign policy. It's ludicrous to suggest it.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by s.petry ( 762400 )
              This is after the fact we are talking about, not what ever fantasy land you pretend to live in. Sony did not have to out their execs, hackers did that for them. The original group that took credit never mentioned either the movie or the DPRK. That was a side show to divert attention away from the content of the emails and put CISPA SOPA back on the political agenda. You are choosing to ignore investigative journalists who do this for a living from The Intercept and Wired. Oh, I know.. according to you

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by halivar ( 535827 )

                I'm not the one chaining endless strands of causality together and slapping a completely irrelevant pet agenda into the middle of it. WTF does SOPA have to do with this? Unless you think it's the CIA and their black helicopters making Sony issue take-down requests. Can't be, because that would be kooky.

                • Re: (Score:3)

                  by s.petry ( 762400 )

                  So the US Media and Politicians never switched the blame from the GOP who claimed responsibility for the hack to the DPRK never happened? The shift in blame is all black helicopters and "hookey"? Really now, I think you need a reality check, because this is not a casual link but _WHAT HAPPENED_.

                  Perhaps you are considering that the CIA did make changes to Sony PR information is also just a casual link, even though the emails prove this. More black helicopters and casual strands right?

                  Believe everything yo

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by AK Marc ( 707885 )

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

            Sure we could. Ask China what cash payment they'd like. The cost of paying off China in cash is much cheaper than a war (economic or military) with or through them. China has a problem because they expect DPRK refugees to run north, not south.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by s.petry ( 762400 )
              If only our Politicians thought this simply, but I do like the idea.

              • Re: (Score:3)

                by AK Marc ( 707885 )
                It'd never happen, spending $1T on war gear gets bribe-kick-backs from the makers, and a cash payment to China wouldn't put anything in the pocket of the legislators.
      • I'm waiting for it to be pirated

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by s.petry ( 762400 )
        fixed link [firstlook.org] https://firstlook.org/theinter... [firstlook.org]

    • Pretty much.

      Money speaks louder than threats.

    • "Wait a minute... If we don't do a theatrical release before the end of the year, this thing can't get nominated for an Oscar! Quick, call up some rinkydink art houses, let's get this nominated for 'Most courageous expression of free speech in the face of a terrorist threat'! Because God knows it's not going to get nominated for the writing or acting."
    • Yep, Sony are milking the Streisand effect for every penny and Dear Leader can't log on to FB right now, sounds like natural justice to me.
    • Anyone want to weigh in on the possibility that this entire fiasco has been an elaborate hoax from the beginning?

  • Dear SONY: (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bmimatt ( 1021295 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:03PM (#48661591)

    Go fuck yourself.

    • Re:Dear SONY: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bledri ( 1283728 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:50PM (#48662055)

      Go fuck yourself.

      Because some douchebags hacked them? Or because they have a sibling company (which they have no control over) that created a rootkit? Or because the five largest theater chains (which they have no control over) are too chicken shit to show their movie? Or because the large on demand streaming services (which they have no control over) are afraid of getting hacked and won't show the movie?

      All this hatred directed at Sony Pictures is ridiculous.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by grumpy_old_grandpa ( 2634187 )
        How about because they are part of the MPAA cartel? Suing grandmas and kids all over the world. But yeah, their dubious "family members" (aka Sony Music, Sony Computer Entertainment) doesn't really contribute to their reputation, whether Sony Pictures have control over them or not.

        Watching Sony bleed has really been the greatest xmas gift of this year.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by bledri ( 1283728 )

          How about because they are part of the MPAA cartel? Suing grandmas and kids all over the world. But yeah, their dubious "family members" (aka Sony Music, Sony Computer Entertainment) doesn't really contribute to their reputation, whether Sony Pictures have control over them or not. Watching Sony bleed has really been the greatest xmas gift of this year.

          I don't think it makes much sense to hate Sony Pictures because of the actions of Sony BMG. And I don't think it makes much sense of hate Sony Pictures because 9 out of 10 theater chains are chicken shit.

          SOPA, MPAA, DCMA, copyright extensions, etc. are excellent reasons to hate the entire industry (Sony included). I just think singling out Sony is a bit ridiculous, as is the general over the top hatefest. So we can all pretend we're "shoving it to the man" when we watch a movie by some other major corpora

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

        By all accounts it's a shit movie, and Sony Pictures has a well establish pedigree for making shit cash-in movies. Spider-man? The first three were basically the same film three times, and then they had to reboot and make another three just to cash in a little more and keep the rights for when Marvel want to do Civil War.

        The there is the DRM they insist on for cinema projectors. Costs the cinema a fortune, which in turn costs you a smaller fortune when you want to buy a ticket. The best part is, all they ar

      • They let themselves get hacked, due to serial & criminal negligence.

    • Why though? At least now Sony is doing the right thing. Or are you angry that they're releasing it only in very few theaters?

      • Why? Hmmm... let's see.
        - trying to demonize "hackers", while
        - trying to break DNS, while
        - trying to stir up political agenda.
        Also, because SOPA, DRM, etc.

        This should help you get out from under the rock: http://slashdot.org/index2.pl?... [slashdot.org]

      • Why though?

        Maybe because today isn't the first day everyone has heard of Sony? They have a history of being assholes. They get away with illlegal or should-be-illegal behavior and product characteristics directed at their customers that makes us all hate them. If they weren't protected by an army of lawyers with chains of patents and copyrights, they would be out of business long ago.

        And now they "oh, we're just going to show you a little bit of our crappy movie, hurry or you'll miss it!"...pass.

        And. Fuck those gu

    • Most of us hate various branches of Sony for different reasons, but remember, Sony Pictures is not the same as Sony BMG, is not the same as PlayStation. I personally don't have a beef with Sony Pictures, except that their DVDs tend to crash MTR.

    • Go fuck yourself.

      Actually, if it would generate enough profits for their corporation, they would do it.

      Maybe we should be offered a double feature: The Interview and Sony Fucking Itself . . . ?

  • They realized how badly they screwed up (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:09PM (#48661643) Homepage
    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 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by edawstwin ( 242027 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:17PM (#48661713)

      I honestly hope that this has The Streisand Effect and breaks every box office record ever. I know that that won't happen, but it would be nice. I was on the fence about seeing this movie before all of the hoopla (Rogen and Franco can be funny, but they can also be not funny at all), but now that some asshole of a dictator says I can't, I'm going to pay for it at least twice. Thankfully, The Plaza Theater (yay Atlanta!?!) has stepped up so that I can.

      America! Fuck Yeah!

    • Re:They realized how badly they screwed up (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Sowelu ( 713889 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:18PM (#48661723)

      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.

      • Yea, what would be classic is if another threat popped up like last time.
        What would Sony and the theatres do then?
        Would they cancel again or cowboy the fuck up and show it.

    • 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.

      How tough would you be if a foreign government had you singled out and was threatening your kids or spouse?

      Just curious internet tough guy.

      • if the threat was supposedly North Korea, made by some anonymous jackasses on the internet, pretty tough actually.

        Of course, after all, we all know how impotent they are, and everyone is just itching to convert to democracy the instant a gun is not at their heads, and all that other jazz.

      • You have a bigger chance of getting into a car accident. Does no one understand risk management? It seems that everyone is afraid of extremely improbable threats for no reason.

    • Re:They realized how badly they screwed up (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bledri ( 1283728 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:32PM (#48661885)

      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.

      Sony is not who bowed down to pressure. The 5 largest movie theater chains refused to show the movie out of fear, not Sony. Why can't anyone understand this? I was listening to an interview with the CEO of Sony Pictures and he made this perfectly clear, numerous times. But the interviewer kept coming back to "won't people see this as Sony backing down to terrorists?" And then the CEO would repeat, "we are looking for other ways to release the movie, but the large streaming services are afraid of getting hacked, etc..."

      Just because it's popular to hate Sony, does not change the actual facts. Sony wants to release the movie. They want to make back the money they spent on it. But they can't force theater chains to show the movie and their normal model is to do release in a ton of theaters at once and have a big openning weekend. It looks like enough independent chains have come forward that Sony gets a Christmas present.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by gurps_npc ( 621217 )
        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

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by bledri ( 1283728 )

          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.

          "Some" theaters backed out? Bullshit, 9 out of the top ten [wikipedia.org] theater chains in North America pulled out. They own a bunch of theaters that you probably think are "independent." They own virtually all the mega-plexes. Only Marcus Theaters (#6 and well under half the size of #5, or about 3% the size of the top five combined) didn't back out. Which is awesome but they are small potatoes for a "blockbuster" where you make most of your money on the opening weekend.

          Why the fuck would they give it to pirate bay

      • Sony is not who bowed down to pressure. The 5 largest movie theater chains refused to show the movie out of fear, not Sony.

        Nice excuse, but not valid.

        You are trying to tell me that Sony has no sway over theatre chains that rely on Sony to provide them with product to sell to the public at excessive prices? Really?

        Sony has a ***LOT*** of power, but chose not to use it because they have no spine.

      • >The 5 largest movie theater chains refused to show the movie out of fear, not Sony. Why can't anyone understand this?

        Here's a response from an owner of a small cinema, named George RR Martin:
        grrm.livejournal.com/397388.html

    • I am sure Hitler did not like The Great Dictator

      Didn't stop him watching it twice, or so the story goes. Before that, at least, he was a fan of Chaplin's.

      • If you read the talk page for the movie at Wikipedia, you'll find a statement that the movie was shown twice, but not for Hitler. Don't know how true it is, especially as it's not in the main article, so believe it or not as you see fit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

      At this point it's looking like North Korea probably didn't do it.

  • Great marketing (Score:3)

    by SkunkPussy ( 85271 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:16PM (#48661701) Journal

    About 40x as many people know the name of the film now than if they hadn't dramatically pulled it.

    • That's been my take from the beginning. There's no way they're canning the movie. They want money. Even if the bomb threats had teeth (which they don't), Sony does not give two fucks about people being blown up.

      So they pretend to cancel it. Internet freaks out. Senators and the goddamn President of the United States say "you guys should release this movie!" And now their middling picture that barely anybody would have seen or heard about is the most talked about picture of the year. So after some soul* sear

  • In other news... (Score:5, Informative)

    by jddeluxe ( 965655 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:16PM (#48661705)
    Larry Flynt has announced that Hustler is making a porn version of The Interview:

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/bus... [slate.com]

    Becuase Freedom!

  • Nice of Sony to make this announcement after North Korea is knocked off the internet. Very passive-aggressive, Sony. Let's see if it's still available when North Korea gets back online.

  • Drive in theaters? (Score:3)

    by thedarb ( 181754 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:22PM (#48661771)

    To bad most of our drive in theaters are gone. I am thinking it would be harder to attack a drive in theater.

    • To bad most of our drive in theaters are gone. I am thinking it would be harder to attack a drive in theater.

      Totally. What terrorist activity could someone possibly perform while driving a car into a crowded area?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by halivar ( 535827 )

        I think he means via hacking. Because any existing drive-in theaters are probably rocking 486's on a 13 inch CRT.

  • It'll be playing at some of the Regency theaters in southern California as well.

  • Torturing is OK. But don't touch Hollywood ! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Stuyvesant ( 3961545 ) on Tuesday December 23, 2014 @02:32PM (#48661881)
    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.
  • North Korea can't launch 20,000 9/11-style attacks if the movie gets released world-wide. Pulling the movie in the first place was plain stupid.
    • If they have the ICBM capabilities they claim, they could launch 9/11 x 20,000. IIRC, the claims of those capabilities are dubious.
      • 9/11 times 20,000?

        But that's...

        That's...

        16363.63

      • Which ICBM capabilities are those? Earlier this year, they claimed to be nearly ready to TEST an ICBM.

        Even assuming that the test went perfectly, and they could turn the ICBM factory to full production the next day, they'd be a looooong way from having "ICBM capabilities".

        Especially since there's no indication they can actually build a nuclear weapon that would fit on one. So far, they've done a couple of test nukes, none of which would've matched Little Boy. And Little Boy and Fat Man were better than

        • I remember reading years ago, I think around the time of their first nuclear test, that they claimed to have missiles capable of reaching the US west coast, which would make it intercontinental. Like I said, it's probably exaggerated like most of their claims, or outright false.
      • Remember that 9/11 was about 20 terrorists (the 20th terrorist couldn't get into the country) hijacking four planes to crash into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and White House. North Korea may have a million-man army, but they don't have 400,000 agents world-wide to strike out at movie theaters.

  • Sony is likely contractually obligated to give it a theatrical release. A lot of actors have it in their contract that the movie will have some sort of theatrical release, so even having it open in one single theater in Texas would count, for instance.

    ~Kat ^_^

  • ... still not going to see it now.

  • Sony creates situation following poor critical review of a movie in prerelease state to up the hype.
    Now one of two things will happen:

    Tickets will sell out as people fall for the hype, only to be disappointed - but it'll be too late, because Sony now has their money.

    -or-

    Theatres will remain empty as people are smart enough not to be fooled again.

    I wonder which is true?

  • (credit: SMBC Comics)

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