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In the latest episode of the Sony hack, Hollywood Reporter says that Carmike Cinemas, which operates 278 theaters and 2,917 screens in 41 states, will not show the Sony comedy "The Interview" following threats of violence from hackers. Sony Pictures told exhibitors who had booked The Interview that it planned to move forward with the movie's release, but that they were free to decide not to show the film, and that the studio would support them in whatever decision they made.
Citing 9/11, the hackers issued a warning and said, "We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places The Interview be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to." The situation is also raising concerns among studios that the threat of violence could keep some movie-goers away from the multiplex over the lucrative holiday movie-going period. "This is bad for everyone. This will stop people from going to theaters, and that affects all of us," says one source at a rival studio. "If somebody called a bomb threat for a concert, and it was credible, you'd have to cancel or postpone the concert."
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Thursday December 18 2014, @02:41PM
Did it occur to anybody that Sony might be doing this on purpose?
I mean, it is true there were threats, perhaps even made by the people responsible for the crack (no way to be sure of that), but do not forget that Sony is a multi-billion dollar industry that is very well aware of how to play public opinion. They are not stupid and know that giving in to this basically opens them for any future demands that random people but in an email.
If they cancel the movie distribution (for now, I do not believe for a second that they will cancel it permanently) they have a purpose, and I do not believe this is because of the threats (unless they have much better evidence that we know nothing about), but because it benefits them in some way.
(Score: 2) by TK on Thursday December 18 2014, @02:57PM
With a company as large as Sony, there's no doubt that this is a calculated moved. Someone in charge decided that
were worth
There is a spreadsheet on some executive's laptop that has this all quantified (correctly or incorrectly). Maybe that will get out in the next hack.
*Note how many comments (here and elsewhere) amount to "I hate Sony, but I hate NK even more, I'll gladly give money to Sony to piss off NK".
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 18 2014, @04:00PM
I have a couple of not-necessarily-related thoughts on this:
(1) Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. -- The one thing that all the juicy gossip in the email that GOP liberated shows is that the people running Sony are just as afflicted by human idiocies as anyone else.
(2) If Sony changes their mind and does do a theatrical release I am totally fine with a ton of people going to see it even if they have had their belief in freedom of speech exploited - since 9/11 this country has been acting like a bunch of pussies. If Sony has found a way to monetize bravery and convictions instead of the way the entire media business has been monetizing fear since 9/11 then that is still a major improvement.
(3) I'm still going to pirate the bluray no matter what because I think the copyright business model needs to go away regardless of all this noise.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday December 18 2014, @05:34PM
I haven't yet seen any statements from Sony that it's going straight to DVD. Only that it's not being released to theaters on the 25th. And the statement from the theaters was that they wouldn't show it until after the FBI investigated.
So sometime in January I expect the FBI will release some conclusions, Sony will release the film, theaters will run it and thanks to all this publicity it'll be one of the best selling movies of 2015. I didn't know anyone who wanted to see this until all the news exploded, now I don't think I know anyone who *doesn't*...
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Thursday December 18 2014, @03:14PM
I'm not a fan of Sony. The newest Sony gear I got was a MiniDisc player. I haven't seen a movie in theatres since ~2007 but for some reason I really want to see this one, at least a trailer. Too bad pirate bay went down :-)
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Monday December 29 2014, @05:48PM
I'm impressed by your predictive powers and it is entirely possible that Sony leaked its own data.
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