The controversial comedy movie ‘The Interview’ was released by Sony Pictures online. YouTube, Google Play and Microsoft Xbox offered the movie to the viewers, and a separate website has been maintained for the movie.
The movie costs $5.99 to rent and $14.99 to purchase. Though Sony Pictures have released the movie, it is opaque whether they’ll be able to make $44 million that it has spent for the movie.
Reuters quoted Sony Entertainment’s Chief Executive Michael Lynton as saying: “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.”
Cable or Satellite TV operators have not yet agreed to make The Interview available for television viewers.
An actor of the movie Seth Rogen tweeted, “The people have spoken! Freedom has prevailed! Sony didn’t give up! The Interview will be shown at theaters willing to play it on Xmas day!”
After initially releasing it online for US-based audience, the movie was made available in Canada. Providing the link of the movie on twitter, Seth Rogen tweeted, “Canada!!! You can now watch The Interview! Please enjoy. It was made in your country.”
“Last Wednesday Sony began contacting a number of companies, including Google, to ask if we’d be able to make their movie, “The Interview,” available online. We’d had a similar thought and were eager to help-though given everything that’s happened, the security implications were very much at the front of our minds,” read a blog post by David Drummond, SVP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, published on Google’s official blog.
Mr David on his blog post further added, “Of course it was tempting to hope that something else would happen to ensure this movie saw the light of day. But after discussing all the issues, Sony and Google agreed that we could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country (however silly the content might be).”
This fictional comedy has a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-UN. Following the announcement of release, Sony Entertainment’s website was hacked. In a firm step, US President Barack Obama had blamed North Korea for hacking.
Tags: North Korea Seth Rogen Sony The interview
