It’s also why TVLand stopped showing MAS*H reruns.
Hello,
Given the 2012 shooting at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, I think it is understandable how movie theaters might be adverse to having their customers exposed to a mass shooting or some similar calamity.
That said, I serious doubt North Korea’s abilities to act on American soil in such a fashion.
Personally, my suspicion is that “G.O.P” is merely an alias for some gang of criminal hackers that accepted payment from the PDRK, but that’s just a guess on my part—I have no evidence to corroborate it.
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Stupid cowardly theaters. It’s totally worth dozens of Americans dying in a theater shooting if it means we get to watch a shitty racist comedy on the big screen.
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I expect it will magically (and quietly) appear on Amazon Prime and Netflix in a few months.
@daneel: the thing I did not like most (and there was much I did not like) about This is the End is the overt Christian plot. It was a lame comedy attempt at Left Behind, but it wasn’t a send-up. The thing that almost made us turn off The World’s End is that it gets quite boring just before everything goes sideways.
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The quality and content of the film is completely beside the point. The “threat” is utterly ludicrous. Sony is clearly more interested in mitigating damage from further leaks and protecting their shareholders than defending freedom of expression. That is the only reason this is happening. Cowardice and money. No matter, it will leak for those who want to see it. In fact, here’s “Kim Jong Un dying” in the film
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Let’s say, hypothetically, that they could. What would there be to gain? North Korea has managed to pretty thoroughly isolate itself, and even its few remaining allies would have a really hard time defending such an act. And while I realize Kim Jong Un’s stability may be questionable surely his underlings would recognize that the backlash wouldn’t be worth it.
The way I read the threat, though, is that there are sleeper cells that are capable of causing huge destruction across the country at a moment’s notice. It’s plausible, but still seems pretty unlikely. The fact that Sony bought this bullshit is pretty depressing.
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Never had any interest in bit torrenting anything. But I’ll make an exception here.
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My theory is they’ll release it over Amazon or something for $10 and everyone will buy it now. If you know it’s going to flop, this might be the best way to save it.
yes, but that would mean admitting torrents have legitimate uses, as opposed to the internet equivalent of lockpick-murder weapon-drugs.that should be outlawed no matter the unintended side effects for the safety of profi…I mean, The Children, don’t you care about The Children!!!
This! 
I need a way to punish the theater chains, and show support for the artists. I can’t do it right away, but I think the following might be the appropriate route.
It still annoys me that I have to support Sony to make this gesture, but I’ll get over that part.
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This seriously needs to be a thing!
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Presumably most of the people involved in making the film were paid salaries? Who loses money other than Sony if it isn’t released? Do we need to start a crowd funding campaign to get money to those people directly?
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You raise an excellent point 
My concern was specifically (though sloppily and tacitly) for the loss of royalties that (I presume) some of the creators might be paid.
Even if they’re awful artists, the threats (and subsequent cowardice) are a more awful reason for them to be denied those earnings.
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Cowards die a thousand deaths.
The brave get their investment paid back & make millions in profits.
Just doing my part for the free internet.
I think the cowards here are the hackers, not Sony.
After the threats came in, this movie got ridiculous amounts of free publicity. People who never would have bothered with a Seth Rogen comedy wanted to see it because of its sudden notoriety. Sony gave up a sure-fire hit, a guaranteed moneymaker, and ate around $100 million by burying this movie. They chose caution over profits in a lose-lose situation. In the world of business, that’s pretty brave.
On any film, most crew are freelancers who are paid salaries. Some talent & “above the line” staff are paid a back-end, percentage points of theatrical gross (which they just lost). The ancillary effects of this will harm the studio’s bottom line, which in turn limits their ability to fund future projects and may cause them to lay off permanent staff members.
Take for example, a Sony staffer who provides event planning services for studio functions. Low-level, non-creative studio employee, 8 years on the job. ALL of this person’s most sensitive personal information was stolen and leaked by the hackers: ssn, scans of DL & Passport, credit card info, mother’s maiden name, bank account info for direct deposits, performance review reports by their supervisor, etc. Already there have been mortgages taken out against their identity. Now, since Sony is canceling events (like movie premieres) and scaling back on future events due to projected losses, it’s very possible that this person faces a potential layoff. This is not hypothetical. It’s a real-example of the harm this attack has caused, not just to millionaire movie stars and studio execs who’s crass emails were leaked, but hard-working staffers who’s entire lives just crumbled. And it’s why I’m against torrenting films as an act of vengeance. It harms the wrong people.
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If the news reports are to be believed, it looks like they’re 1-0 against Sony/US. I’ve read a few reactions that talk about NK’s military capacity and how they’re not a threat against the US, except, as I mentioned above, they (or agents thereof) were successful in this new battlespace. And in the news reports the hack itself is spoken of as being highly organized and technically complex, so it’s not as though Sony accidentally forgot about all those networked and unsecured SQL boxes hanging out in the back closet.
Sony could get back at them by releasing this movie in the public domain.
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Team America is now verboten as well.
