Sony’s ‘The Interview’ movie earns $15 million in online sales
The movie was rented or purchased online more than 2 million times from 24 December through 27 December
San Francisco: “The Interview" earned more than $15 million in online sales in its first four days of distribution as Sony Corp. bypassed a wide theater release amid concerns from major cinema chains about threats of violence.
The movie, a farce about a plot to kill North Korea’s leader, was rented or purchased online more than 2 million times from 24 December through 27 December, Sony Pictures Entertainment said in a statement on Sunday. Apple Inc. separately began offering the comedy on its iTunes Store on Sunday, expanding the online reach.
Sony first made the movie available beginning 24 December on Google Inc.’s Play and YouTube Movies along with Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox video console and www.seetheinterview.com, a website sponsored by Sony. The film was also released in a limited number of theaters on 25 December after major chains cancelled their planned Christmas Day showings after threats of violence from hackers that the FBI has linked to North Korea. The hackers had conducted a cyber-attack on Sony’s computers last month.
“The Interview" has taken in about $2.8 million in box-office sales from 331 theaters since its release, Rentrak Corp., a market-research firm that tracks the movie business, said on Sunday. That includes about $1 million on Christmas Day.
Shares of Sony fell 0.7% to 2,534 yen as of 10:16am in Tokyo. The stock has gained 39% this year compared with a 9.8% in the Topix index.
Culver City, California-based Sony Pictures, in its statement, said “The Interview" already ranks as its top online film ever. Sales will be helped further by Apple, which put the movie online for US and Canadian customers at about 1pm in New York for $5.99 to rent and $14.99 to own.
Online premiere
A group called Guardians of Peace has claimed responsibility for infiltrating Sony Pictures Entertainment’s servers, destroying data, exposing Hollywood secrets and forcing the studio to disrupt its plans for the film’s release.
Last week’s online rollout marked the highest-profile feature film to debut on the Internet and gave Google’s YouTube a chance to show that it’s more than just a destination for user-generated videos. Google has been adding a growing collection of films, including “Divergent" and “The Lego Movie," in a drive to bolster its premium content to compete with Apple’s music and video library.
The unconventional rollout of “The Interview" is the first big test for a simultaneous theatrical and online release. Typically, such debuts have been reserved for smaller films, such as independent movies that may not have enough widespread appeal to warrant a big theatrical marketing budget, according to Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Rentrak.
The movie’s arrival in theaters wasn’t met with any reports of violence. On the same day, however, Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live were hit by connection failures. Services were restored for Sony’s PS4 game console on 27 December and for Microsoft on 26 December, according to the companies. Hackers calling themselves Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the disruptions. Bloomberg
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