UPDATED WITH SONY’S STATEMENT: Sony Pictures is releasing its controversial movie The Interview in theaters after all on Christmas Day — likely in fewer than 100 indie theaters. We’re told the turnaround came after a conference call with Sony distribution execs that just ended. Several of the smaller chains are beginning to unveil the news via social media. “We just got the call,” said Brock Bagby, director of programming at KC-based B&B Theatres, which has 408 screens in eight states. “Our film buyers did. Sony will be playing it on VOD and letting anyone play it who wants it.”
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Here’s Sony’s official statement quoting Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton:
Sony Pictures Entertainment today announced that The Interview will have a limited theatrical release in the United States on Christmas Day.
“We have never given up on releasing The Interview and we’re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on Christmas Day,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Entertainment. “At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience.”
“I want to thank our talent on The Interview and our employees, who have worked tirelessly through the many challenges we have all faced over the last month. While we hope this is only the first step of the film’s release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech.”
Bagby said theaters were to give Sony an answer later today if they were going to book the movie. Several places are already aboard. “We’re going to put it in a theater,” Bill Barstow, owner of Midwest-based Main Street Theatres, told Deadline. “We’ve booked it at a 14-plex in Sioux City [Iowa].”
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Sony Pictures on December 17 officially scrapped its release plans for the political comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, about two journalists who try to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. That pic prompted an unprecedented hack attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment last month that has engulfed the studio in crisis ever since.
It’s not expected that those major exhibs — Regal, AMC, Cinemark, Landmark, Cineplex and Carmike among them — will participate in Thursday’s platform release, They pulled out after the hackers threatened to blow up movie theaters if The Interview was released — that’s serious exposure for multiplex owners who likely would need to add security, not to mention risking angering studios whose movies would have to be bumped during a crowded Christmas Week frame to make room for Sony’s pic. The major chains also have a policy of not participating in day-and-date release strategies, giving them an out here. (Even some of the indies are grumbling about the VOD play but are showing the pic anyway.)
Indie exhibitors have been vocal about being willing to show The Interview. Yesterday, a petition emerged signed by indie theaters part of the coalition Art House Convergence pledging to play the film if Sony let them (it currently has 500 signatures). In Los Angeles, the Cinefamily theater held a protest screening of the North Korea documentary The Red Chapel on Sunday in support of The Interview. Cinefamily and Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse publicly vowed to play the film if Sony released it.
“We cannot imagine the pressures that have been affecting Sony, at all levels of the organization they have been under attack,” Alamo Drafthouse boss Tim League said in a statement today. “Amidst this unwarranted chaos, they have regrouped and listened to the public, the government and the exhibition community and responded with resolve and determination. At 10:45 AM, Sony bookers approved screenings at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and other arthouse and independent theaters across the country.
“This is the best Christmas gift anyone could give us. We, both distributors and exhibitors, have collectively stood firm to our principles and for the right to freedom of expression. Two days til Christmas, and I am proud to be an American.”
On Sunday, Art House Convergence, which reps 250 indie theaters, posted a letter to Sony Pictures’ CEO Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal, saying they would screen The Interview, which might have played a part in setting the stage for the release reversal:
Dear Mr. Lynton and Ms. Pascal
Your Art House motion picture colleagues wish to support you and your company at this difficult time. We empathize with the ruthless attack your company suffered and we want to help in our small but powerful way.
The enormity of the attack your company has suffered and the difficulty of the decisions you have been forced to make in recent days are nearly unimaginable; similarly is the monumental nature of the business disruption your company has endured in recent weeks. Your life, and possibly your judgment, has been disrupted beyond comprehension. The financial bottom line impact will be, frankly, unfathomable for an independent Art House to comprehend. However, in life and art, values are the ultimate “bottom line” and striving for freedom and goodness are the sometimes conflicting, but paramount values of enlightened societies.
We understand that “The Interview” is on one level “just a movie,” meaning, in terms of human history, a probably facile entertainment and business investment. But circumstance has propelled this work into a nexus of values, both societal and artistic. It is also, as an artistic and national community, an opportunity to respond clearly to the behavior of an international bully opposed, by word and deed, to the value of freedom.
We, the independent Art House community, will gladly exhibit “The Interview” as a special, one-day showing without pecuniary expectation, or as a regular part of our cinema programming. We do this to express the value and power of freedom and to support you, our artistic and business colleagues, during a time of great vexation.
Best wishes to you and all your Sony Entertainment colleagues as you endeavor to restore normalcy (if that is possible in show-business!) to your work-life and your business.
Most Sincerely — Russ Collins, Director, Art House Convergence
BitTorrent and VHX, two direct-to-consumer digital distribution platforms, offered to release the film. It’s unclear which digital outlets will release the pic as part of the VOD strategy.
MPAA spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said today in a statement, “We are extremely pleased that audiences will be able to see the film.” Yet again, the studios’ trade group is late to weigh in on the issue, showing no leadership.
Daniel LaRussa is going to fight?!?!?
Publicity stunt by Sony?
Hmmm…you decide.
Yes, a Brilliant publicity stunt that results in the loss of millions of potential box office dollars for them. Seriously dude?
I feel sorry for the Japanese again – always getting hosed by Hollywood. The CEO of Sony needs to fire Amy Pascal and the entire executive staff for this incredible blunder
HowardB you false flag guys are exactly what’s wrong with the country. You simply tout conspiracy theories instead of trying to find real world solutions.
The damage Pascal faced could be irreparable. The studio is going to lose millions. What world do you live in? Please let me know so I can avoid it.
And to the comments about how Sony is flip-flopping, does it make sense to stand by the wrong choice? Sony makes the RIGHT choice now and people are still b-tching. If you are one of these people, please book a flight to NK.
Does anyone really care ? Enough already. This story doesn’t have to be in the media every 5 seconds.
Speak for yourself. Plenty of people care, and you aren’t required to read these articles. Good day to you.
Absolutely, with the claimed repercussions being so severe. Quit bitching
Uh, this is huge industry news. This is an entertainment industry site. It’s completely appropriate for them to cover this story.
FREEDOM!!! (Or something . . . .)
Now it’s time for the other exhibitors to get onboard. This is a no-brainer, license to print money.
You have made a grave mistake!
Whatever, Voldemort.
BUYING OUR TICKETS FOR THE INTERVIEW NOW!!!
does this mean more emails being released by the hackers?
*facepalms*
Thanks for America for not let fear take you down.
I knew it. The whole thing was a brilliant marketing ploy after all.
A “brilliant marketing ploy” to release the film in two theaters? Really?
Doesn’t sound very brilliant to me.
Not really, since it was supposed to be released in 3,000 theaters and now it is in 500 theaters. It probably would not have been a huge success either way, but 500 and VOD does not a blckbuster make.
Right on. Might even pay full price for this one.
This is just dumb.. now this feels like a complete PR move for a film that was horrible to begin with to make money.
well played Sony and of course the masses will flock to see this film. Bad or not.
Oh, ya, Michael and Amy are def gone now… What a circus show this has been.
well, i must admit, the ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’ saying has come to fruition when i didn’t think it would.
this movie is going to do LEAGUES better than it would’ve w/o NK involvement.
for better or worse it will become for some people a mark of patriotism to see this movie and buy the DVD.
It’s a Christmas miracle! Idiots all around.
Congrats to the indie theater operators and Sony for having the CAJONES to persist/insist on running “The Interview” on Xmas day, but I do hope you ALL have put into place stricter “security” screening precautions for theatergoers just in case! I’m also hoping that the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and other federal/local authorities place higher “external” security measures in place outside of these theaters, becuase you never know if there is an “implanted” foreign threat or “home-grown whackjob” (ala the James Holmes’ shooting in that Aurora, Colorado theater a couple of years back) who may still be inspired to do a “Christmas surprise” (as implied in the widely-published #GOP email threats).
It is better to err on the side of extreme caution given all that has transpired the last few weeks since the start of Sony hacking. No matter what, we should not be caught with our pants down (like 9/11), but also make a F-U statement to the murderous/oppressive regime of despot Kim Jong-un.
I’m asssuming that the DHS and FBI have been advising Sony on this latest re-launch initiative for the movie and may feel that the current crippling of North Korea’s internet infrastructure could be affecting its ability to communicate around the world (at least for the regime to maintain their own “access”). Whether the U.S. government is potentially using HAARP or their satellite high-beam COUNTERCOM technologies to DISRUPT ground-based NK communications (or if China helped by “pulling the plug” on NK’s access to data/telecom switches?), the “BLACKOUT” on NK has to at least be maintained for the foreseeable future.
Cutting off NK’s Intranet-based propaganda structure could also provide an opening for South Korea to do their air-balloon drops of DVD copies of “The Interview” and other dissenting information — the idea here is to foment “internal unrest” among the oppressed citizens within this improvished, enslaved society.
Could not have said it any better! Great post!
Nice flip flop Sony/Lynton. Now please get back to the important shareholder business of finding acting parts for Leon Black’s daughter.
Niece…
Glad to hear this. Hopefully the UK follows suit.
I expect that this will go great guns at the BO in its small debut, regardless of the quality of the actual flick. I imagine many will go as some sort of protest. And good for them.
Watch as the major theatre chains start booking The Interview once the tills start kerching-ing in the next few weeks. Especially once they see that nothing actually happened at these screenings.
Actually, wait…
Could this be the biggest PR stunt of ALL time?! Is this all fabricated news RE: Sony hacks and North Korea? Was the Sony Marketing Dept behind this whole thing, the whole time, driving interest in their movie sky-high?!
Are we in The Matrix?
Best marking scam by a movie studio of all time. Even got the President involved.
Now, the little movie that would never have found an audience, will make millions of dollars because “freedom loving patriots” will see the movie to cast their votes for “freedom of speech”
Ugh.
The big chains need to step up and show this.
let freedom ring
America, f—– yeah!!!
As a security precaution will ” No Asians Allowed” signs be posted in front of all theaters screening The Interview? Amerika The Beautiful.
Sony is finally figuring out that the only way to end the PR debacle is to release the movie, somewhere, somehow. If it’s within 50 miles of me (in SF, plenty of art theaters here), I’ll show up. But I have a feeling that this will just be the beginning of movie theaters changing their minds…who wants to look like a huge wuss after all?
Anyone who seriously believes that this was an orchestrated PR event should be locked in a room with all of the Sony employees and former employees whose personal information was released on the Web.
Nice bit of backpedaling after the POTUS scolded them.
In any case, I’d rather watch Team America: World Police, as I know it’s funny.