After finally relenting and saying that they would release The Interview in a few cinemas on Christmas Day and on the internet everywhere else, Sony have revealed that the movie has made $18 million since it became available.
$3 million of this was made in direct cinema sales whereas $15 million of it was made through online sales, making it pretty much the most successful straight to VOD release of all time. Sony claim that it was bought 2 million times between Thursday and Saturday via this format.
Having said that though, it isn’t really saying much. There have hardly been any major straight to VOD movie releases and The Interview cost over $80 million to make and is nowhere near recouping that. You also have to think of all the trouble that it’s caused for Sony and quite frankly it’s fairly obvious that it was a bad idea as it’s going to lose loads of money and might even bankrupt Sony.
They really should have thought more about whether the threat from hackers to bomb all cinemas showing it was credible before deciding to pull it from most of the theatres in America eh?
