Meanwhile, across town Deadline quoted a L.A. man whose brother-in-law was killed on 9/11 as saying, “I’m not going to have a dictator tell me what I can see and not see,” as he stood in line to see the film.
All this excitement and patriotic sentiment translated into $2.8 million in box office for the 331 theaters that screened the film, far less than The Interview probably would have made as a wide release but a triumph nonetheless. The bigger success story, however, was online, as the film topped the Google Play and YouTube online charts (Xbox Live was busy dealing with hackers of its own this weekend). Those online rentals added a reported $15 million to The Interview’s total, making it Sony’s biggest online release ever. With legal actions against Sony from ex-employees still playing out in court, this is not the end of the story, but it does provide a happy ending for the movie about the movie about killing Kim Jong-un that some screenwriter is probably working on right now.
