Critics and early viewers agree that The Interview is less than a masterpiece. However, thanks to threats from hackers that nearly derailed its release, it has become an event.
Hundreds of theaters on Thursday, from The Edge 8 in Greenville, Alabama, to Michael Moore’s Bijou by the Bay in Traverse City, Michigan, made special holiday arrangements for the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Sony Pictures had initially called off the release after major theater chains dropped the movie that was to have opened on as many as 3,000 screens.
However, with US President Barack Obama among others criticizing the decision, Sony officials changed their minds. The Interview became available on a variety of digital platforms on Wednesday afternoon, including Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft’s Xbox Video and a separate Sony Web site. Meanwhile, Sony and independent theaters agreed to release it in over 300 venues on Christmas.
Photo: AFP
“We are taking a stand for freedom,” said Lee Peterson, theater manager of the Cinema Village East in Manhattan, New York, where most of Thursday’s seven screenings had sold out by early afternoon. “We want to show the world that Americans will not be told what we can or cannot watch. Personally, I am not afraid.”
At Atlanta’s Plaza Theatre, a sell-out crowd on Thursday hailed the film’s release, washing down popcorn with beer and cocktails and uniting for a boisterous sing-along of “God Bless America” before the opening credits.
“This is way more fun than it would have been,” said Jim Kelley of Atlanta, who waited outside with his daughter, Shannon. The elder Kelley added: “This is almost dangerous, like we’re living life on the edge.”
Some venues showing The Interview were more likely to feature documentaries about North Korea than a low-brow comedy about it. At the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico, owned by A Game of Thrones author George Martin, the schedule also includes the Spanish art-house release Flamenco, the locally made The Twilight Angel and an Italian film festival. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, which began screening The Interview yesterday, is scheduled to host a tribute to Force Majeure director Ruben Ostlund of Sweden and a documentary about the late Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer.
North Korean diplomat to the UN Kim Song condemned the release, calling the movie an “unpardonable mockery of our sovereignty and dignity of our supreme leader.”
However, the diplomat said North Korea would likely limit its response to condemnation, with no “physical reaction.”
In Little Rock, members of an Arkansas family who say they otherwise would have never seen The Interview were among the first patrons at the Riverdale 10 theater. Kay Trice and her husband drove an hour from Stuttgart, Arkansas, to see the movie with their daughter and appreciated “the freedom to see it.”
“It should be shown in this country and somebody in North Korea should not have the right to scare us out of seeing this,” Trice said.
Meanwhile, Sony’s online PlayStation store and Microsoft’s Xbox site suffered disruptions to users on Christmas Day in the latest possible cyberattacks on the companies.
The PlayStation Store Twitter feed said yesterday that some users were having trouble logging into its network. It said engineers were investigating.
A notice on Microsoft’s Xbox Web site said it knew some users were having trouble signing in.
The notice read: “We’re aware of this issue, and we’re working to find a fix ASAP.”
The problems were affecting Xbox Live Core Services, though most other applications were up and running, it said.
Earlier this month the PlayStation store also experienced spells of inaccessibility. That followed a cyberattack on computer systems of Sony Pictures Entertainment that led to a release of confidential information on the Internet.
A hacker group calling itself Lizard Squad appeared to take responsibility for the disruptions on its Twitter account.
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