The Sony hack has been the talk of the industry, but the sequence that led to the pulling of "The Interview" doesn't appear to be as much Sony's doing as part of the booking wars that happen in Hollywood.
Sony initially planned to release the movie. Concern by the circuits for public safety and liability concerns undoubtedly made it waver.
December 17 - Carmike Cinemas publicly decided to not honor the playdates:
http://c272342.r42.cf1.rackcdn.com/C...e%20vFinal.pdf
The film buyer there is John Lundin, CEO is David Passman, COO Fred Van Noy. These three would have been involved in that decision. Carmike is a conservative oriented circuit with a base in the rural south.
The following day, AMC (A Chinese owned Company {China has ties to North Korea}) Regal (controlled by right-wing Philip Anschutz) followed suit, along with Cinemark, and Cineplex Entertainment. Source:
The Right-Wing Billionaire Who Bowed to North Korea over
The loss of those top five circuits and playdates was a major blow to any possible financial success to the movie. It is akin to a fashion designer bringing out a new line of clothing and finding the top five retailers refusing to show or sell it. Sony at that point tried the financially prudent thing - to pull the film for release at a later date. That is a technique that has been used before.
Step in the public and media furor, and the comment by Obama, and suddenly NOT releasing it was no longer a viable option.
HERE is where it gets interesting. Sony released the movie ONLINE the day
prior to the release to the movie theatres willing to show it. That is unprecedented, and because of the brou-ha-ha the online sales are going to be significantly large; large enough for studios to consider direct to online releases in the future,
cutting out the theatre circuits.
For moviegoers, 'patriotic duty' to see 'The Interview' - Dec. 25, 2014
Carmike, in particular, made a horrible strategic error. In pulling the film based on perceived terrorist threats (as if there were millions of North Korean terrorists in the rural south
) it has encouraged the enmity of Sony and the conservative rural southerners that it serves.
AMC, once the ice was broken, was to be expected to pull the film based on China's ties with North Korea. That is what you get when foreign corporations hold strings.
With Regal, Anschutz comes across as a putz even if he was not fully involved in the decision.
While the Sony hack was a debacle, the charge to the rear led by Carmike was a disaster for the major theatre circuits. Getting sidetracked by perceived threats may have resulted in a major battle lost against on-demand digital.
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