<p>IMHO, Sony has created a terrible mess with this situation. The theaters were absolutely 100% correct to refuse to exhibit the film; in light of the very credible threats, they would have been reckless not to do so. That puts Sony in a position of caving to terrorist threats, which, as history has shown time and time again serves only to encourage future terrorist acts and threats. Given that this was arguably foreseeable, you have to ask what Sony thought it was accomplishing by proceeding with the movie in its current form. Cynically, I question whether any substantial portion of the target viewing audience even knows who the leader of North Korea is. I’m a big proponent of the first amendment, but I question Sony’s judgment here.</p>
<p>And, speaking of the first amendment, the state department is a red herring here. The state department would have had no basis for shutting the project down. </p>
<p>I’m with those who believe this cancellation is likely part of a subtle and if done right, clever marketing effort to garner more buzz and hopefully, greater receipts when the movie is released…along with getting folks who are only seeing it to stick it to NK and its current leader or to take a principled stand on not caving to bullying terrorist threats. </p>
<p>Plausible considering the trailers/movie looked a bit phoned in…</p>
<p>As for Sony getting hacked, I find it a bit amusing considering their computer products IME have been overpriced and poorly built. Had the dubious pleasure of working on countless Sony desktops and notebooks over the years. </p>
<p>One friend’s Sony notebook had such flimsy build quality the optical drive bay front panel fell off without any prompting after just a year of light usage. </p>
<p>The big picture problem is censorship through intimidation. Granted, the cyber-terrorists who are threatening to unleash apocalyptic acts have proven they can hack Sony’s network. But come on, bombing theaters…this is simply intimidation. Kind of like threatening to test nuclear weapons when people don’t play nice with you.</p>
<p>The bigger question is how does the free world respond to the growling Chihuahua that is “the hermit kingdom” are we going to ban “the Onion” next? Or maybe CNN ?</p>
<p>I am not defending the movie, subject matter, or Sony per se, but we need to be concerned about how much influence we cede to this badly behaved purse pet.</p>
<p>It is a shame the resources spent perpetrating this attack and these ridiculous threats weren’t used to feed some of the tens of thousands of starving North Korean people.</p>
<p>SInce most theaters decided not to show it, Sony made the right move, IMO, to cut their losses. Now, I’d prefer to think aboutwhat will be done to Korea in response to this hacking. Embargo?</p>
<p>Funny @Singersdad . . . it would be interesting to know what percentage of the target audience realizes that Kim Jong-un is an actual guy and not just a facebook meme</p>
<p>"I’m with those who believe this cancellation is likely part of a subtle and if done right, clever marketing effort to garner more buzz and hopefully, greater receipts when the movie is released…along with getting folks who are only seeing it to stick it to NK and its current leader or to take a principled stand on not caving to bullying terrorist threats.</p>
<p>Plausible considering the trailers/movie looked a bit phoned in…"</p>
<p>I don’t believe the cancellation is in any way a marketing effort by Sony. </p>
<p>I am sure the movie would have made them a lot of money. Movies do not need to be great to make studios bucket loads of money. </p>
<p>As for them using Kim Jung-un - I think that was a dumb move, too. They should have taken a page out of Woody Allen’s Bananas. </p>
<p>Agreed- Don’t believe at all it was a planned move by Sony. That would be stupid to arrange release on xmas with many theaters arranging to show it, then to pull it last minute as a marketing ploy. If the threats hadn’t been made, Sony hadn’t been hacked twice and theaters hadn’t decided to cancel the movie, it would be a non issue and this probably silly movie would be released and likely low on the list of revenue makers over the holidays. I agree that if they do at some point decide to release it, making it available on a netflix or other similar venue may be appropriate. They can try to spin it into something positive (aka the old New Coke release years ago) but at this point they are just trying to stop the hemorrhaging at Sony.</p>
<p>I’m not necessarily sure the movie would make a lot of money considering the competition from other movies this Christmas season, trailers, and the costs of making the film. It’s also a bit of an odd time to release this type of film. </p>
<p>IMO, it’s more of a spring-break/summer film than one for the Christmas season considering the theme and target audience. Can’t see it as one parents or siblings with more mature tastes would enjoy. I’d also have a hard time seeing it as a “date movie”…unless we’re talking folks like me who would take someone to such a movie as a form of a “prank date”. </p>
<p>With news of the pullout and the surrounding controversy, Sony can end up capitalizing on the extra buzz and possibly greatly expand their potential audience beyond the usual adolescent/young adult mostly male crowd. </p>
<p>“I’m not necessarily sure the movie would make a lot of money considering the competition from other movies this Christmas season, trailers, and the costs of making the film. It’s also a bit of an odd time to release this type of film.”</p>
<p>Nonsense, kids (teens-20 somethings) go to the movies a lot during their Xmas breaks. </p>
<p>Thinking that this is some sort of marketing ploy by Sony is absurd. </p>
<p>This is the kind of stupid movie that I might possibly watch for free as an airline selection on a very long flight. Now its pretty unlikely it’ll even be released to the airline venue. If it is released at all, it’ll likely be direct to video and maybe there will be a few curious folks who will watch it that otherwise wouldn’t have, but I think its pretty dead in the water.</p>
<p>Again, I am more curious about the response /retaliation to Korea. They deserve what they get, IMO.</p>
<p>I don’t sleep well on planes, so when travelling internationally I typically watch 4 movies. Thats when I select clunkers. I have watched Seth Rogan movies (some good, some terrible) so it might be selection # 3 or 4 when I hope to fall asleep…</p>
<p>Don’t you mean North Korea? We don’t want to retaliate against our ally, South Korea…especially considering some of them may actually enjoy this movie for poking fun at their portly belligerent neighbor up north…</p>
<p>As for North Korea…I’d suggest the US government pay a massive license to Vanilla Ice and broadcast his “Ice Ice Baby” song to North Korea on endless loop. Only issue is that may violate Geneva Convention accords against torturing others…</p>
<p>Cobrat, we are trying to have a reasonable discussion about the hacking, sony’s response and the future outcome. Introducing yet again some inane music blast as a solution to an issue is (a) not funny and (b) does nothing but derail the thread. Please stop.</p>