The Interview Cancelled: What Happened, and What It Means So in case you’ve been living under a rock (feel free to skip down to the 4th paragraph if you’re already well versed on the background), the top five major theater chains (Regal, AMC/Loews, Cinemark, Cineplex, Carmike) have decided not to show the Seth Rogen James Franco comedy, The Interview. Okay, so let’s dig a bit deeper now. A few days back, Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked by a group identified as the “Guardians of Peace,” which many people believe, and is basically accepted by most now, to have ties to North Korea. They threatened to leak information unless SPE pulled The Interview. Just a few days ago, this seemed just plain silly and moronic, why would Sony take a loss upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars for a random hacker group? Well the “Guardians of Peace” delivered, releasing DVD quality digital copies of big movies like Fury and Annie, and leaked emails from executives like Amy Pascal and Social Security numbers of various famous actors and directors like Sylvester Stallone and Judd Apatow. Many news studios were quick to report on these (Jump Street and Men In Black crossover! Spidey in Captain American 3!), while others decided it was none of their business to plumage through private information gathered illegally (free speech vs privacy concerns, etc). Regardless, this caused quite a stir in the industry, and it’s arguable that these reputation damages alone may have cost Sony severely: The Interview may be the most expensive movie of all time, with Forbes critic Scott Mendelson claiming “The Interview isn’t worth the price Sony paid.” Now comes the important stuff. Yesterday, the group released terrorist threats: “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.” It referenced the 9/11 attacks and cautioned people to avoid the theaters. Afterwards, Sony loosened their contract, allowing theaters to drop out of distribution if they so desired, and by today, too many theaters had dropped out for Sony to be able to show the film. The Interview is no more. So, what does this all mean? Sony had just decided to pull a movie, potentially losing hundreds of millions of dollars, for some random hacker group. The cost of the film was $44M, add in marketing, and unrealized profits, and you’re looking at way more than $100M in losses. There are two major angles we can take on this situation. The first one is that the theater chains are setting a major precedent that companies are willing to bend and cater to scumbag hackers, and are fearful of what may just be an empty threat. They, for the sake of potential repercussions, have done exactly what the demanders wanted; in a sense, “the terrorists” have won. The other angle is that the theaters are private companies, and they can choose whatever they want to play, and deciding not to show a movie and possibly save some lives may just be worth it. Considering how much the group has already done successfully, no company or individuals should have to suffer this much from a movie, nevertheless a relatively inane comedy, especially if human lives are at stake. One small thing I do want to clear up though concerns all the people mad at Sony: THE THEATER CHAINS PULLED OUT, NOT SONY. Sony had no choice if nobody was willing to show the movie. If you want to take the first angle, blame the theaters and not Sony; although Sony gave them the choice to drop out, it was 100% the theater chain’s choices to drop. Now I’m not going to argue for one side or another. Some people may say it’s better to be safe than sorry, while other people are saying this sets a precedent for the oppression of free speech, even by corporates. The fact that a major company like Sony is now ready to give in to a group of hackers (or terrorists) does make future company negotiations a lot more alarming: this means that the control no longer lies in the customer’s or companys hands, but the criminals who attack, especially with the widespread proliferation of computer technology in companies and even the government. Yet there are no repercussions of this precedent yet, and it’s hard to say if anything of this scale and magnitude may occur again (although it is very very possible now). The theater chains and Sony technically have done nothing wrong by choosing not to show this film. They don’t have to negotiate with terrorists. You can call them cowards, or you can defend them in their shielded desperation, but from a financial standpoint, they have very few options. If Sony decided not to loosen their contracts and forced theaters to show it, a potential headline would be “Sony forces theaters to show The Interview, terrorist attacks commence.” And for the theaters, then the chance of a successful attack no matter how small or large, given the previous successes of the group, is more than enough to justify dropping a relatively small film (in the grand scheme of things) just in case something happens. Regardless of what people think, what has happened can’t be ignored. Politically charged movies are often the ones which take the biggest risks, and the movie industry may no longer be willing to release movies that promote political ideals (an upcoming Gore Verbinski Steve Carrell North Korea thriller project has since been cancelled as well). This may be an oppression of free speech, and you can call the studios cowards, but you have to ask yourself, did they have a choice? This also raises questions: what if this was a much bigger film? Would theaters still have dropped? What would have happened if they did release the movie? Right now, Sony can either delay the film, after all the buzz is over, and release it on a future date that my impact sales, but at least better than not showing it at all. Or they could release it to everybody on video-on-demand and digital streaming service. This would be the smartest move, as they would be able to recuperate much of the losses while distributing the movie legally at its peak interest level. Still, Sony’s plan is unseen for now, and what happens will happen. We all would hope for a safe and stable movie-going environment, and in an ideal world, most of us would have preferred The Interview to play in theaters unharmed in the coming few weeks. No precedents would be set, and we could go along securely, watching the films we want to watch. Complications happen, and sometimes we’ll be upset by it, but we have no choice but to sit and watch the chaos unfold.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 01:20:52 +0000
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