LOS ANGELES ¨C ¡°The Interview,¡± the Sony Pictures comedy believed to have triggered a cyberattack on the studio, has racked up over $40 million in sales from 5.8 million digital downloads, the studio said on Tuesday.
Michael Lynton, chief executive of Sony Corp.¡¯s entertainment arm, called the $40 million mark ¡°a significant milestone¡± for the studio¡¯s unprecedented online and pay television release, on platforms such as Google Inc.¡¯s Google Play, Apple Inc.¡¯s iTunes and Time Warner Cable .
The film¡¯s digital release on Dec. 24 was cobbled together a week after Sony Pictures shelved a wide release when major theater chains refused to screen the movie due to unspecified threats of violence from hackers. President Barack Obama called the decision to scrap the theatrical release a ¡°mistake¡± akin to self-censorship.
The film starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, which depicts the fictional assassination of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, has also earned $6 million at the box office after independent theaters pushed for a limited release on Christmas Day.
It was unclear if Sony Pictures would recoup its investment in the comedy, which cost $44 million to make and tens of millions more to market.
The U.S. government has blamed North Korea for the most devastating cyberattack on a private company on U.S. soil. The North Korean government called ¡°The Interview¡± an ¡°act of war,¡± but denies it is behind the hacking.
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