'The Interview': Big Online Revenue, Long Way To Profitability

Although Sony’s “The Interview” has taken in a record $15 million on its unusual opening day online release, it still has a long way to go to profitability.

The controversial movie has pulled in strong digital video-on-demand activity from over 2 million downloads: Google Play; YouTube Movies; Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox video console; Sony’s own Web site area; and most recently Apple’s iTunes Store.

But the movie’s estimated $70 million in production costs and $30 million in marketing costs make it a tough road for Sony to put the movie into the black.

Looking at traditional distribution through movie theaters, "The Interview" has taken in a tiny in $2.8 million in box-office sales from 331 theaters since its release — about 10% of the original number of theaters in which the movies were scheduled to be released.

Other reports suggest the movie may have been illegally downloaded as well — up to 1.5 million. Since the initial surge of interest following the movie’s release on December 25, overall download activity has been slowing dramatically.

Pictures Entertainment said "The Interview" already ranks as its top online film ever — where consumers can rent the movie for $5.99 and own it for $14.99.

Sony pulled the original wide-release rollout plans, due to threats of violence at movie theaters from those who reportedly hacked into the company computer systems.

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1 comment about "'The Interview': Big Online Revenue, Long Way To Profitability".
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  1. Jay Fredrickson from Fredrickson Services Inc., December 29, 2014 at 7:01 p.m.

    Once the word of mouth got out about how bad this movie is, people may be saying, who gives a damn? It was really really weak, embarrassingly so in my opinion. I'd rank it in the worst ten movies I've seen in the last decade, and I have seen ALOT.

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