I'm starting to smell a rat...

[Archae]

Regarding that "Interview" movie.

Sony gets hacked by a third-rate dictatorship, cancels what looks to be a stupid "comedy" movie.

Now it's "patriotic" to go see this movie, in the name of "free speech."

I smell one big PR stunt.

[Blue_Adept]

1. This continues to be the most idiotic line of all

And shows a base lack of understanding of how this all works as a business.

If you think this is a PR stunt, then you're nuts. They went from having 3000+ screens ready to show it to now barely a hundred.

Yeah, that's smart business when you scrap billboards, cancel advertising that you spent a lot of money to create, set up PR junkets and paid for things that you had to cancel and never mind all the other aspects and ripple effect in overseas market.

Yes. A very smart PR stunt.

[DrDan]

3. you should know by now that we never let the facts interfer with a good conspiracy

and we have outdone ourselves the past few weeks.

[Agschmid]

11. Yup.

Good ole DU.

[LiberalElite]

104. That occurred to me too, days ago but

I decided it was all too convoluted and too much trouble.

[DrDan]

161. I know what you mean - the longer the thread, the more the creative twist to reality

[SkyDaddy7]

16. I could not agree more!

It amazes me how many people automatically scream CONSPIRACY! just because they themselves don't understand something.

[rhett o rick]

23. And just as many deny conspiracies ever exist. Why would people conspire?

I guess I can see why people fear conspiracies, it means they dont have as much control as they thought, but it happens all the time, especially when looking for publicity.

[Schema Thing]

31. I don't think very many people deny conspiracies exist. But to succeed

a conspiracy needs to be smart, have all actors with actual real-world motivation, and of course be extremely limited (to remain undetected).

[whathehell]

34. Are you kidding?

"Conspiracy Theorist" has become the Insult du Jour.

[Schema Thing]

39. yes, for very good reason. But why do you assume that

even people who use the term "conspiracy theorist" negatively don't believe that conspiracies exist?


It's dumb conspiracies posited by people who don't realize that "theory" is different from "whatever I pull out of my ass" that people get sick of.

[whathehell]

62. I guess I don't think it's for a "very good reason"..

For God's sake, it's not like the OP is spreading some big, Evil Government narrative..It's a movie studio -- Who the fuck cares?

Apart from the question of why a political board should be so invested, one way or another, on "conspiracies" by movie studios, I don't know (or frankly, care much) whether it is, as you strongly imply, a "dumb" conspiracy"..Who decides that?..I don't work for Sony and I doubt you or the others piling on here do either. If I'm mistaken, I'm SURE someone will be quick to inform me of such, likely in the nastiest of manners.

As to what people "get sick of", do you know what I'm sick of?...The mean-spirited hostility and open rudeness heaped upon virtually ANYONE here for the slimmest of reasons.

This place is starting to STINK of free floating anger and the toxicity of hate.

[Blue_Adept]

65. The problem is...

For those that do understand how this business works, what we're seeing are far too many people around here that are essentially yelling out to the world that the sky is green. And they firmly believe that it's green. That's what these kinds of conspiracy statements sound like when you actually understand what's involved in it.

It's the problem of where everyone thinks they know enough about something to provide what they believe to be factually true, even if they can't prove it, because they believe it. It's a disbelief of the specialist mentality.

Being involved in genre things for several decades, and seeing the flat out ignorance of so much of it, it can be painful to watch it happen again and again.

[whathehell]

70. Really?

and how, may I ask, have you been "involved in the genre for several decades".

Would you care to enlighten us, sir or madam, what "genre" you are speaking of and

what you're involvement consists of?...Seriously...Information is so much more

useful than snarky attacks.

[rhett o rick]

75. So are you suggesting we have a test to decide on how knowledgeable posters are before they

can express their opinion on particular subjects?

If a person is ignorant about a certain subject, it's easy enough to prove w/o name calling. Usually, posters that use name calling or ridicule do so because they don't have a good argument and instead try to silence the other with insults and ridicule. This is a message board for "politically liberal" posters. I would hope they keep open minds to all arguments.

[whathehell]

84. You've not answered the question..What's the "genre" you claim to have been

"involved with for decades"?

Since you had no problem slamming the OP for his "ignorance", shouldn't you be able to explain precisely what your

expertise is?

[Contrary1]

68. It's always surprised me that people here

give a damn one way or the other about things like this.

Could this have been a PR stunt? Maybe, maybe not. We are quick to latch onto conspiracies involving Repubs for much less.

"If I'm mistaken, I'm SURE someone will be quick to inform me of such, likely in the nastiest of manners." Ditto.

[whathehell]

74. Exactly, although when I think of it,

I tend to think it's just another excuse to:

A. Show off some presumed "expertise".

B. Act out anger and/or hate.

There seems to be a LOT of unhappy people here of late, and they're

making the "Du Experience" an increasingly bad one.


.

[SammyWinstonJack]

85. ...

[rhett o rick]

37. I agree with your second sentence but not your first. When a person's first reaction

to the suggestion of a possible conspiracy is to denigrate the messenger, IMO they want to deny, deny, deny.
I think the fear of conspiracies stems from the fear that if conspiracies do exist then our authoritarian leaders (who promised to keep up safe) are not totally in control and that cant be allowed to happen.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

[Schema Thing]

40. You too!

[whathehell]

106. Exactly..

Where are the DUers who laughed right back at the Conspiracy Denyers, calling them

"Coincidence Theorists"?

[hopemountain]

103. so....

by your statement, then all movies are conspiracies, eh?

or, how about the kennedy assassination?

or, monsanto and the usda's promotion of gmo's as harmless? and the recent declassification of coal ash as harmful?

and, care to comment on the conspiracy of santa clause and mushrooms?

[treestar]

77. Conspiracies to rob banks

Distribute illegal drugs. Or make a terror attack or a school shooting

But as the first response said, this one would be of no gain to the conspirators

[rhett o rick]

80. " this one would be of no gain to the conspirators" I must admire your certainty.

I do not share your absolute certainty to know all the facts and wish to keep an open mind.

[treestar]

97. Well it is a fact that thousands were going to screen the film

but they had to pull it back and now have only a few hundred. It makes no sense to say they'd conspire to end up making less money on the movie. The publicity of the kind they got hasn't helped them.

[zappaman]

107. So they conspired to lose tens of millions of dollars?

Why would they do that?

[rhett o rick]

113. Once again with the questions. If you have a point just spit it out. nm

[zappaman]

117. I can't ask you a question based on your comment?

Hear let me try and spit it out again.
Do you think SONY conspired to lose 10s of millions of dollars AND released personal info on anyone who ever worked there AND let emails that could get them fired out to the world?

[rhett o rick]

130. Hell no. But why do you guys hate to commit yourselves? nm

[zappaman]

132. Not sure what you are saying, but you didn't answer my question.

Try again?

[rhett o rick]

134. Let's get something straight. I am not an authoritarian and don't bow to your demands.

I asked why you guys don't like to commit yourselves. And you won't respond, so I will take a guess. You are afraid to commit yourselves without checking to see what Pres Obama would do or say.

And by-the-way I did answer your question of "Do you think SONY conspired to lose 10s of millions of dollars AND released personal info on anyone who ever worked there AND let emails that could get them fired out to the world? "

I responded "Hell no."

[zappaman]

148. Ha!

Okay, since you are not an authoritarian, could you stop telling me what to do?
And for the record, I don't check anything with Obama.
Not a member of the BOG either, which we know you and your buddies like to throw around as some kind of insult.
And, I voted for Obama twice but even though I have some issues with him, I won't denigrate and lie about him like you and your buddies have.
Have a great "libertarian" Xmas Rick!

[A Simple Game]

122. Maybe they want to see what the bottom line would be to release a film directly to the internet?

Who knows? $5.99 if I recall correctly to view online. What would be the net from that and how would it compare to the net from theater release? Perhaps they didn't expect too much from this film after the first weekend anyway? I've read that the movie is good and I have also read that it was a piece of crap. If the later is true then they may just want to use the movie as an internet trial without having the theaters learn about it and get mad at them.

All speculation on my part, I haven't been to a theater in 30 years.

Why don't you try now, see if you can come up with a possible reason.

[zappaman]

125. 5.99 for any number of people viewing in a household is significantly less

Than the 10-14 dollars per person they would get from theaters.
And they have already spent likely over 50 million on marketing which they aren't getting back.
The exhibitors who had booked the film knew exactly what they were getting since they've seen it.
If they thought no one would come, they don't have to book it.


Edited to add: streaming movies has been going on for years now.

[A Simple Game]

128. The studio gets $10 per person? I doubt that.

There are distributors and the theater must get a cut. I bet the profit margin is much higher for streaming. Name one other first release movie with this size budget that went directly to streaming.

As for:

The exhibitors who had booked the film knew exactly what they were getting since they've seen it.
If they thought no one would come, they don't have to book it.

Well guess what the theaters did?


What is your idea, other than knocking down mine with a poor and incomplete argument.

[zappaman]

131. The studio gets up to 90% of the first weekends box office.

Would you like me to to the math for you or are you going to continue to school me with your "facts"?

[A Simple Game]

142. I would be happy for you to give me your ideas and said so in my first post.

By the way what kind of fact is "up to 90%?" Is it the same as "down to 5%?" Perhaps you could give us the average number?

As for my facts, perhaps you missed this line in my earlier post:

All speculation on my part, I haven't been to a theater in 30 years.

The bold word would seems to be the significant one in this sentence. You see I don't really know I'm just throwing out an idea and as you may come to guess, I don't really care. Just trying to keep the mind sharp by having some fun and contributing by throwing out an answer to your question. But as to my "facts" here is the link: http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/%E2%80%98the-interview%E2%80%99-online-plan-set-youtube-google-play-xbox-and-sony-site/ar-BBhbOxW?ocid=U142DHP Now that I backed up my "fact", where is the backup to your 10 to 14 dollars "fact" and your 90% "fact?"

So my idea is not worthy, fine it was as I said, just speculation, now let's have your ideas or was your question not meant to stimulate a conversation?

[zappaman]

145. I've been marketing movies for 30 years while you've been avoiding movie theaters

For 30 years.
Sorry you don't like my info on this, so continue to believe whatever you want.
Family here so I don't have the time to educate you and, truth be told, I don't really care to.
So have a merry Xmas!

[sabrina 1]

35. What amazes me is the overuse of the word 'Conspiracy' every time

someone, somewhere on the planet dares to have a thought that MIGHT offend someone's sensibilities.

But then when you learn that the use of the word was planned during an actual conspiracy, look up the word, to try to discredit ANYONE who dares to think for themselves, you come up with yet another CT.

You can COUNT on it, the words CTs being dropped into any forum when there is even the slightest deviation of thought from what people are told to believe.

Please, dear gods wherever you all are, STOP people from THINKING outside the box because it so horribly offends a few people's sensibilities and even might cause some mistrust, and we can't have that, in what we are supposed to believe.

[treestar]

98. This OP thought outside the box

and that was fine. But putting the idea out there doesn't mean everyone has to agree. The first poster to respond pretty much made a very good argument that there would be no conspiracy.

It's not always clever thinking. Sometimes it's a little bit facile, as it was here.

[rhett o rick]

114. The first responder was unnecessarily rude. nm

[sabrina 1]

163. No, no one has to agree with anything. I didn't see the OP however,

attacking those who disagree with the words 'CT'. Because while the righteous name callers feel only they know the truth and everyone esle is a CT, we have found out from past experience that it is they often who are peddling propagandistic CTs.

Then again, most people who are simply trying to figure out what is going on in this country where we have been so consistently lied to by those entrusted with power by the people, speak from the heart so are not likely to use prepared talking points to express their opinions.

Sometimes the truth isn't 'brilliant', it's just the truth, which is often very simple.

[rhett o rick]

20. How rude to call someone that you don't agree with "nuts" and saying their OP is "idiotic".

Try to keep an open mind and entertain different opinions. You have good arguments, but it does smell fishy. I am betting all those expenses you mention will be overcome with profits. But that's just my opinion as is yours.

[zeemike]

26. Open minds are a dangerous thing.

Doubt in what you are being told may creep in, and then what?
Nope, better to believe what you are told and keep your mouth shut if something smells bad.

[rhett o rick]

29. Of course sir. Please forgive my slip out of the authoritarian "reality" for a post.

I promise to be good.

"I am a humble servant and recognize that I am not worthy of knowing true reality. Therefore, I will trust my chosen leader to guide me. I will never question the reality I am presented. There are no conspiracies because that would mean my leader isn't in total control and that isn't possible."

[zeemike]

38. Good.

We would hate to put the rat cage on your face.

[whathehell]

36. +100

The concept of civility around here has become a joke.

[AtheistCrusader]

46. It must smell like fish, because it sure as hell doesn't smell like money.

Sony has lost upwards of 800 million dollars so far on this fiasco. They won't be making any of that back on the limited showings of the movie, however hyped it may be.

Whether it's economic realities, physics, you name it, most accusations of a 'conspiracy theory' nature are almost always couched in total ignorance of the subject at hand.

And money aside, consider all the talent that will simply refuse to work with Sony Pictures, after all that internal documentation was released, and people saw what employees really thought of them. And hang on to your ass, Sony isn't done losing money yet. You can bet Hannah Minghella is talking to legal counsel after she found out how much less she makes than her male counterpart. Michael De Luca makes about a million dollars a year more, for the same role, same job title.

If this is a conspiracy, it's the most bungled fuck-up of a conspiracy, ever, in the history of conspiracies.

[rhett o rick]

73. I am not arguing that this was or wasn't a conspiracy. My concern is that we can discuss

it in a decent manor. I am hoping for a message board for "politically liberal" posters that keep an open mind and don't try to influence others by name calling or ridicule. Your argument is strong but I hope you aren't closed to alternate arguments. As far as conspiracies go, yes most are, at least originally, considered from ignorance of facts. But keeping an open mind is the best way to evaluate the evidence.

[AtheistCrusader]

79. Then something like 'smells fishy' should be accompanied by facts. Such as 'Cui Bono'

or, 'Who Profits'.

Never a bad thing to question circumstances or what have you, or things that 'smell fishy', but good lord, please keep it in the realm of the rational.

[zappaman]

87. Exactly.

SONY is out a ton of money and people will be let go over this.

[Blue_Adept]

51. Everything is rude these days

I've seen too many alerts in the last couple of months where if someone plainly says someone is ignorant about something, they get alerted on and called out for being rude.

Everything is rude.

Sometimes you need to be blunt about things. This whole angle is just fucking ridiculous. Seriously. It comes down to one of those things where it just makes you want to throttle people.

How many times do we watch the news and see someone talking about something we know intimately and passionately and it's completely wrong. Utterly and completely wrong.

That's what this is.

To call this a PR stunt?

It just shows an amazing and absolute ignorance and lack of understanding of how this business works.

Utterly.

And no amount of nice, calm, smile inducing explanations about it will change someones mind.

Because to them, SOMETHING STINKS AROUND HERE. Because they don't understand it. They see conspiracy theories everywhere. Someone must be to blame. Don't trust anyone. They're all out to get you. Etc, etc etc.

So when you see things you know a whole lot about, and is in fact part of your business, being bandied about like a teenager with concepts they don't understand, you just lay it down bluntly.

[whathehell]

67. No, it'a actually a choice..

"Rudeness" is actually a violation of DU Rules. Just sayin' .

[Blue_Adept]

69. And we all have different levels of what's considered rude

Which is what juries end up deciding regularly.

As I said, people are alerting on telling people that they're ignorant about something. That's now rude, for some.

[whathehell]

71. The "level" here has descended to rank bottom.

It's why so many good DUers have left and so many intolerable jerks have joined.

[Blue_Adept]

72. We've had intolerable jerks here for almost fifteen years

But yes, the good DUers have unfortunately level in waves over the years, which is natural in any forum environment.

[whathehell]

76. Indeed, but their numbers appear to be increasing..

and I'm not sure I believe good people leaving and being replaced by jerks

is necessarily "natural", but it is something I have no interest in arguing about.

Have a good day.

[rhett o rick]

137. It's never appropriate to call posters names. And I think it a little audacious for you to

think you know the facts and no one else does and therefore justify calling people ignorant. Politically liberal posters keep an open mind and debate disagreements in lieu of using name calling and ridicule to carry the argument.

[defacto7]

158. It seems this is not about the argument,

It's about you and how you "feel". It's about how you want to write about other people and what they are worth to you. You have completely removed yourself from the actual discussion and simply want to stomp.

Your opinion in this matter comes down to couple of sentences at most and it's a good argument. The rest is just kicking because you're mad. That is why the conversation and argument has devolved to this point. It may be entertaining to some but rude or not it's not useful.

[Logical]

111. Sometimes statements are so off base that they are idiotic. nt

[rhett o rick]

112. And when that happens you have a lot of options. Name calling should not be one. nm

[Orrex]

27. I hear that Bush Jr. was advised of the film's storyline in August, yet he did nothing.

[AtheistCrusader]

47. !

[elehhhhna]

43. releasing ugly emails is also a pr win

[PeaceNikki]

96. this.

[dballance]

121. Actually, I have to Agree with the OP. They got so much FREE PR.

Last edited Wed Dec 24, 2014, 11:04 PM - Edit history (1)

"The Interview" became available on a variety of digital platforms Wednesday afternoon, including Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft's Xbox Video and a separate Sony website"

So now, it's available in far more than than if it were simply widely released to theaters.

I think this was actually a brilliant marketing move by Sony and nothing else.

So much FREE, FREE PR and now we have our idiot congress-critters saying we must all go see it as a matter of patriotism. David "Diper-Wearing w/ prostitutes" Vitter being one of the most vocal.

From what I understand it's actually not a very good movie. The fart-humor and scatological-humor would seem to be right on for adolescent males.

Now people are paying to stream it and people will be filling the theaters to see it starting tomorrow. I bet taking it out of wide release won't hurt Sony's profits in the least.

Seems to me they've taken turd and made it into gold. Not only that, they've gotten FREE PR up to and including the President speaking out about it. That, as they say, is priceless. Playing the "victim" works well here in the USA.

[Logical]

140. Sony will lose their ass on this movie. You don't get it. And they would not leak their own.....

emails.

Why the hell do people make this shit up for?

[tammywammy]

147. It's DU....

There's often illogical thinking/posts here.

[zappaman]

150. Some people hate it when facts challenge their world view.

Sad, but I get it.

[dballance]

164. I never said Sony leaked their own e-mails.

I only said they had PR people who know how to change the narrative and make something profitable out of this.

I don't think YOU get it. Let's wait and see about the financial returns on this movie before you say Sony will lose their ass. Until then it is just your useless speculation.

[TexasProgresive]

2. Yeah, something is rotten in Denmark (Hollywood)

It doesn't matter much to me as I had no intention of seeing this film, not my cup of tea. I didn't understand why it was thought smart to make a satirical movie about a sitting head of state. The old "Mission Impossible" series was always careful to use fictitious countries and persons and were able to make a point.

[MADem]

5. Frank Drebbin foiled a plot against Queen Elizabeth....

And this fillm wasn't about a fictional leader...

And then there's that awful one where Tom Cruise tried to kill Hitler...I can't even bother to look for a link to that one...

And of course, in the comedy sphere, the South Park franchise and that Team America puppet thing went after Saddam Hussein, and the Naked Gun franchise went after a whole slew of leaders (Qaddafi, Arafat, Gorbachev, Hussein, Khomeini, etc).

[Beaverhausen]

115. Valkyrie was based on a true story

And I enjoyed it.

[MADem]

166. I understand the Germans who revered the character Cruise played found his performance

wanting, at best. To put it kindly.

Rather like having Mickey Rooney play George Washington.

Bad casting, on a good day. "Not his Oscar moment" is putting it far too kindly.

And the reviews? Why, they were so awful they bordered on cruel.

Why Germany Hates Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise laughable in ‘Valkyrie’

Tom Cruise "Distractingly Bad" In "Valkyrie": AP


This is the far better version, available with English subtitles http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Valkyrie-Sebastian-Koch/dp/B001F0TM2Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1419845107&sr=8-4&keywords=Stauffenberg

Sample of the film, regrettably without them (but still better than that Cruise hot mess):

[HoosierCowboy]

4. Looks like another $100 million dollars worth of publicity...

....for free stunt.
Need publicity for your next movie?
Get Hacked
for further details see "Jennifer Lawrence nude pictures"

[m-lekktor]

6. damn i thought you were the DUer most against conspiracy woo!

someone has hijacked Archae's account!

[Archae]

7. I have a few doubts...

Pulling stupid PR stunts is absolutely nothing new in Hollywood.

Remember the first "Blair Witch" movie?

Promoters of that movie pulled a dandy hoax.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/blair.asp

[zappaman]

88. Sorry but you're off on this one.

I know people at SONY and have worked with SONY as well as every other studio.
Trust me, they are all worried about job security over this nightmare.
Pissing away all this money and the horrible emails doesn't help anyone over there.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. That's absurd. It's just absurd. Executives destroy their own reputations and important

relationships and ability to do business in order to promote a film that already has a huge promotion budget, stars that easily access the best media platforms for promotion, stars whose films always make a boatload of profit without much effort at all?
The Interview cost about half the budge of the same Studio's other Christmas release, Annie. So you are also thinking that they shafted a much larger investment over a smaller film with as close to guaranteed profits as it gets in the film business. They screwed everything they have in order to advance a film that was going to make 60 or 70 million in profit no matter what? Sure. Whatever.

[Little Star]

17. I agree with you, it's absurd.

[AtheistCrusader]

50. Exactly. You can't even put a dollar value on the torched relationships with various

Hollywood talent.

And the legal ramifications.... aahhahaa we haven't even SEEN the start of the lawsuits yet.

[Cleita]

60. The movie business has thrived on publicity both good and bad since its

beginning. One actor even said he didn't care what the media said about him as long as they spelled his name right. Often the studios admitted publicity stunts after the fact and after counting their profits. We don't really know what happened here yet but the so called facts aren't adding up yet.

[Bluenorthwest]

95. The OP is a foolish, absurd and silly thing.

Since you did not bother to address any of the points I made, I'll just say that folks who say 'all publicity is good publicity' are people who have never had any publicity.

[Cleita]

108. I forgot you are an authority on everything you know nothing about.

Hope you have a happy holiday anyway.

[LynneSin]

9. I love how the GOP tells their supporters it's their duty to go see 'The Interview'

http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/20/media/republicans-theaters-sony-the-interview/

"As a sign of my commitment, if you agree to show this movie, I will send a note to the Republican Party's millions of donors and supporters urging them to buy a ticket -- not to support one movie or Hollywood, but to show North Korea we cannot be bullied into giving up our freedom," he added.

I wonder how many GOP supporters are going to go see this movie and learn what a typical Seth Rogan/James Franco movie is all about when the see all the vulgar language and excessive drug use in the film.

[AtomicKitten]

10. Nah, it's just dumb luck.

[Agschmid]

12. Your OP is a stunt.

[Abbraxus]

13. I am probably alone... or at least in a minority....

Free speech has its limits. IMO, a movie about the assassination of anyone, communist or not, a "comedy" or not, is beyond the bounds of free speech. I will not see the movie, not because I am not patriotic. It's because I find the subject matter offensive.

[Lodestar]

14. That "smell" is coming from the carcass of this lousy rotten movie...

I don't think they planned it...they are just spinning it to their advantage with the whole free speech thing.

I hope other countries will not be encouraged to create movies that find humor in the murder of OUR president.
Jeeesh! I truly am sick and tired of a culture that seems to cater to the mentality of an adolescent boy. Actually
the adolescent boys I know are far more sophisticated than this Beavis and Butt-head 'fart' type humor.
Can we grow up already?

[Omaha Steve]

15. No 'Interview' screening slated for Omaha

Instead of thousands of theaters running the film for a full run, a small number showing it for one day won't make squat.

No 'Interview' screening slated for Omaha: http://www.omaha.com/go/no-interview-screening-slated-for-omaha/article_1dee81e0-8af3-11e4-b4e6-7f76d12a97f3.html

By Bob Fischbach / World-Herald staff writer

From Staff and Wire Reports

“The Interview” will be in theaters Thursday — although not in Omaha — as Sony Pictures Entertainment announced a limited theatrical release for the comedy that provoked an international incident with North Korea and outrage over its canceled release.

Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton said Tuesday that Seth Rogen’s North Korea farce “will be in a number of theaters on Christmas Day.” He said Sony is continuing its efforts to release the film on more platforms and in more theaters.

“We have never given up on releasing ‘The Interview,’?” Lynton said in a statement Tuesday. “While we hope this is only the first step of the film’s release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech.”

Aksarben Cinema owner Bill Barstow said he got a call from Sony on Tuesday morning offering “The Interview” for Christmas Day screenings in Omaha. He turned Sony down for Christmas Day, though he said he may show the movie at some later time.

FULL story at link.

[on point]

18. What you smell is your own conspiracy fantasy.

Sony would never out their internal corporate guts for all to see, and will suffer far greater losses than they can recoup from the movie.

I would self delete your nut case conspiracy theory as it just contributes to the uninformed noise out there.

[Lurks Often]

19. That's odd, when read your op I heard, saw and smelled tinfoil

[DeSwiss]

21. In America everyone smells rats.

- We also elect them to office.....

[stevenleser]

22. Your OP is an excellent example of why "Cui Bono" doesn't always work.

Yes, Sony may ultimately benefit from how this went down.

That doesn't mean North Korea and Kim don't exist or didn't make this happen.

People and entities sometimes benefit from actions they had no part in.

[KingCharlemagne]

24. In La-La Land, the only bad publicity is no publicity. - nt

[Vinca]

25. That's exactly what I said to my husband yesterday.

Something is very stinky.

[DawgHouse]

28. In the beginning...

I thought it might be a stunt but it's gone way too far for that.

[newfie11]

30. Yep!! Nt

[Fred Sanders]

32. I smell one Stupid Nation, united under terror by media. 2 weeks ago folks were terrified of NK

sending something something somewhere somewhere to kill them in the dark of a movie theatre and now....green light folks, go see the movie? All directed like an orchestra by the media.

Like Fearbola all over again.

Major media execs. must laugh and laugh every day until their sides hurt at the gullibility of folks so easily terrified and then manipulated......half the natin thought they would die in their sleep from ebola...now it is, hey, not me...what ebola?

[Nac Mac Feegle]

33. I suspect the sarcasm tag was supposed to be unnecessary for obvious reasons

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

[Iggo]

41. Well they better not get caught then.

Whoever was responsible was also throwing around threats to attack movie theaters. That's a serious crime.

[KG]

42. I'm sposed to believe NK's dial-up level interent capability pulled up this hack.

like i'm sposed to believe 9-11 was planned and executed from the most backward country on the planet.

[OnyxCollie]

129. +1

The US blames NK for what looks like a hacker group attack, and then NK's internet goes dark.

What's this about some movie coming out?

[GoneFishin]

44. I have known this story line was bogus from the first second. As for a PR stunt? I don't know, but

I know we don't have the back story yet. The scenario being peddled just doesn't pass the smell test.

[Lodestar]

53. I'll take a stab at it..

So the movie itself was 'created' by our own intelligence (so of course it had to be a 'stupid' movie) to be the target of a hack which was actually from our own people, but which was rumored to be retaliation from N.K.. This, backed by a big media hubbaloo was our excuse to convince China to assist us in cutting out internet access to N.K for a brief window of time (assuming China was the only one who had the channels to do this). Why was it important to cut nternet power to N.K.? Hmmmmm.....some covert plan in motion?

Well...at least my story line is more interesting than the one in the movie.

[ThoughtCriminal]

91. Best movie pitch since "The Player"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105151/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Player_%28film%29

[Festivito]

141. Sounds like a pre-Benghazi movie I recall hearing about.

fund a movie and then get the president for either overstating or understating the situation.

in the meantime you might be able to start a profitable war.

[kentuck]

45. I agree....

"Conspiracy" charges aside.

This piece of shit comedy was never going to be a hit so I would not be surprised if a lot of this crap was planned?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

48. If so it would make more sense if the film was in general release rather than the now

highly scaled-back release it will be seeing. I don't know, it may yet see a larger release.

However, considering the highly coincidental internet outage in NK I am reluctant to believe PBO authorized a cyber attack/act of war on another nation because he got roped-in to a publicity stunt.

[cigsandcoffee]

49. If it was planned, it wouldn't have been planned with racist executive emails.

Being called a racist is like having leprosy in Hollywood. No way would top execs risk that to sell a movie.

[oberliner]

52. I have't in my nose too

I made a post about that yesterday:

Any chance the hacking of Sony was actually a viral media ad campaign for The Interview?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025997060

Bonus point if you get the reference in my reply title!

[L0oniX]

54. Said it last night to the wife ...it's a form of disaster economics ...for the MPA.

[Cleita]

55. Latest on news this morning is that some 200 theaters are going to go ahead

and show it on Christmas day. The bigger chains are still undecided. However, they never stopped the ads for it to open on Christmas Day. Betcha those bigger chains change their minds by tomorrow. I agree. It's starting to look like a big PR stunt to promote a mediocre movie.

If this turns out to be fact, I think Sony should be brought up on charges for stirring up a crisis and possible war with North Korea.

Also, I was listening to a computer tech show over the weekend and one of the techie hosts doubted North Korea had the capability to do this kind of hack and pointed to Russian hackers as probably having a good laugh and the ability to make it look like the hack happened on one of North Korea IPs. When this ruse happens, it supposedly is impossible to trace it back to the original servers. Now I'm not very tech savvy, so if you want to correct me feel free. I'm only repeating what I remember that I thought I heard.

So was it clever Russian hackers or Sony itself promoting a movie with an international incident?

[Blue_Adept]

56. Some serious victim blaming here

I dunno about your market, but in mine the ads have been pulled.

And theater chains can't just put a movie back in. They've already booked the space elsewhere.

[Cleita]

57. Repeating what I heard on the news. Blame them.

I still am allowed opinions though, that being, I agree with the OP that we smell a rat.

[Blue_Adept]

61. And we all know how reliable the news is around here

Right? How many outrages du jour have we had in the last year that after a day, a week or a month we find out that all the facts were misrepresented in some way?

[Cleita]

109. You have a merry Christmas too.

btw, they are streaming it on line for $6 a shot it seems. Sony did find a way to distribute it and make money. It didn't have to be in a movie theater.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026001148

[Logical]

143. LOL.....

I assume you have not spent 10 minutes thinking about the math behind your statement.

[Cleita]

144. I never spend even ten minutes thinking about math especially here.

However I was repeating some news reports by people who are paid to do this so take your umbrage up with them. And didn't you post that you streamed it on a pay per view type of thing?

Oh, do try to have a nice Christmas.

[zappaman]

151. If this turns out to be fact, I think Sony should be brought up on charges for stirring up a crisis"

[Cleita]

152. Have a lovely Christmas.

What are you doing at home in front of your computer on Xmas eve? You live in LA.

[zappaman]

154. 830

Just back from an amazing sushi dinner.
House ready for family.
Watching a blu ray of QUEEN from 1975 since we've already seen THE INTERVIEW.
You have a lovely Xmas too!

[ecstatic]

58. I don't know, but I'm sick of hearing about this movie.

And I have no desire to ever see it (unless it comes on one of the channels I already have).

[unblock]

59. nonsense. they're making lemonade out of lemons.

sure, there's a pr effort, now, to *salvage* what they can out of this debacle.

but odds are good that this movie will make less than it otherwise would have.

worse, it could have a lasting effect on going to movies. fine, maybe some people will go to this particular movie, who otherwise wouldn't have, out of defiance to north korea. but what about all future movies? if this is a "stunt", then it's a stunt that makes people afraid to go to movie theaters.

why on earth would a movie studio want to make people fear for their lives by going to a movie theater?
do you think they benefit from people being scared to go to theaters?

it won't be an act of defiance to go to see any future movie, but the fear that a movie theater will be a terrorist target will linger.


it this was all a pr stunt it's one of the stupidest pr stunts ever.

[MiniMe]

63. I had no desire to see the movie when I first heard about it

And I still have no desire to see it. It could be a PR stunt, I still don't plan on seeing this movie. If fact, if it ever comes on one of the movie channels, I still won't watch it.

[tradewinds]

64. Why do you hate America??

[woo me with science]

66. We live in a propaganda state now

all part and parcel of a corporate, authoritarian state.

[B Calm]

78. LOL, I was thinking the same thing the other day when all this broke!

[Skidmore]

81. If it is a PR stunt, it is a monumentally stupid one since

it opened them to lawsuits and has probably alienated a good number of the talent on whom it depends for its products.

[Iggo]

92. They threatened to go 9/11 on movie theaters.

Monumentally stupid barely scratches the surface.

[notadmblnd]

82. I thin it was a PR stunt too

However, I just heard on MSNBC that they were going to stream it tomorrow on YouTube.

[Drunken Irishman]

83. I'm glad you don't work for a PR firm if this is your idea of a stunt...

The Interview won't ever sniff the total screens it would have had none of this happened. That alone is going to cut into its profit considerably.

[zappaman]

86. SONY is losing a lot of money over this.

Quite a lot actually.
So, they did get hacked and handled it poorly.

[hugo_from_TN]

89. Why isn't it our duty to see that crappy movie about Mohammed?

Tow crappy movies. One insulted the long dead founder of a religion and the other depicts (satirizes) the assassination of a sitting national leader. The first is denounced as a horrible thing and the producer is jailed. In the second the President himself declares it is critical that it not be censored. Curious.

[Boreal]

167. Due to the fact the so many politicians

and the national security apparatus were all calling this TERRORISM, I think it may have been done in order to pass one of these laws that the entertainment industry so wants. I'm not terribly familiar but IIRC, one of things they've wanted is access to ISP info in the never ending quest to hunt down anyone who might be downloading their shit w/o paying. With the entertainment industry now being victims of *gasp* TERRORISTS this creates a (bogus) pretext for fighting that terrorism.

Speaking of bringing the entire US government down on someone in the oh so important effort to protect corporate profits, what ever happened with the Kim Dotcom case?

[Beaverhausen]

90. 51 people recommended this OP? really?

Do you honestly think Sony put the private records and correspondence of thousands of employees out there at risk in order to make more money?

I think many of you are dipping into the egg nog a little early!

[Ruby the Liberal]

94. I'm about to be next

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014973224

[DrDan]

99. lol +1

yep - and we criticize the wingers for their lack of critical thinking. We certainly cannot be criticized for a lack of creativity and imagination.

This place can be so embarrassing sometimes.

[Logical]

139. People love to make shit up. nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

93. How much does a movie ticket cost - more than $6 to view online?

And how many people were going to choose this over all of the other options being released tomorrow?



You may be on to something...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014973224

[Flying Squirrel]

100. No correct responses to this OP forces me to come out of the shadows

(Just for the moment) and point out what this entire incident means in the grand scheme of things. Obama did not need to comment. He does very little without a reason. We're running out of good enemies that the MIC can rally the good ol' American public behind. By commenting against Sony's actions, Obama turns this into something we care about on an official level. This is now a ready-made war, the masses are already on board and all that is needed is some fake proof that N. Korea is restarting its nuclear program. We're not at war with Eurasia, we're now at war with Eastasia. Five minutes hate against Kim Jong-Un, everyone! Probably won't happen during this administration, but just wait.

[Ruby the Liberal]

116. That, or Sony's Marketing Department opened a bigger can o'worms

than the CIA/State Dept was comfortable with, so the admin stepped in to make sure the entire theater complex didn't close overnight and cause panic reactions with mall shoppers & (insert image of dominoes toppling here).

[90-percent]

127. You mention NK and their nuclear program

Ahhhh, the things I wonder and worry about in this day of being kept really safe, as long as I don't interact with law enforcement or exercise my right to peaceably assemble or care about being able to retire.

Specifically, NK is in the nuclear club. My foggy remembrance is that they tested two and have maybe two more on hand?

Is it possible in these times for those nukes to somehow be used on the continental United States? To demonstrate my contention that "the less you know about something, the easier you think it is to do", couldn't somebody just get a drone or a private jet or any other means of smuggling goods and get it into the U.S.A.?

In other words, isn't it possible that it may be a good idea to worry about offending a person as mentally unbalanced and cruel as the boy king of NK?

Just wondering. A thought exercise. Sounds like I'm in favor of cowardice? No, really not. I've made multiple arguments on DU about the absurdity of being "kept safe" after 9-11. 30,000 a year aren't kept safe from firearms and 500,000 aren't kept safe from heart disease, etc. 9-11 sure hit on the collective lizard brain stupidly trashing every principal our world needs for humanity just to be "kept safe" by a government that could give a rats ass about your safety or your Constitutional Rights.

These are interesting times. Everything is suspect. We have no where to turn for a shared source of credible news anymore. You've got to consume MSM like a political science professor and then amp up your critical thinking skills to get a picture comparable to what Cronkite or Huntley/Brinkley or any other of those honorable tv news anchors of the pre-Reagan years could do in 22 minutes.

-90% Jimmy

[GoCubsGo]

101. Been saying that from the start.

I think they're exploiting the hack in order to gin up profits for a film that wasn't going to make as much as they'd like.

[Skittles]

102. it was an inside job but

I suspect it's more a disgruntled employee than a PR stunt

[politicman]

105. are sony really going to lose money on the movie?

I don't have an opinion either way on whether this was a PR stunt or not because basically I don't care.
But reading all those people that are completely discounting this because they think Sony is losing a lot of money, well it got me thinking for a minute about if Sony will really be losing money.

For starters, a movie makes most of its money on its opening weekend, and if we go by past history, most movies are lucky to breach the 50 million dollar mark on opening weekend.

So now we have a situation where a movie that a lot of people never cared about and were never going to see is being touted as a patriotic movie that people need to see to stand up to those evil NK's.

300 million people in the U.S, only a tiny percentage of those people would have gone to the movies to see it, and the Sony would have probably made a lot less than 50 million on opening weekend.

Now we have Sony streaming over the internet a 'patriotic movie', and if only 30 million of the 300 million people in the U.S decide to pay $6 to show their patriotism and view this movie, then Sony will have made over 180 million in a few days, far outnumbering whatever they would have made on opening weekend.

I don't know if that means anything, but just thought I would add my 2 cents worth.

[Logical]

110. I think you love conspiracy's. nt

[Rex]

118. Well guess what? Reuters is in on the conspiracy! Shh...don't tell the 'concerned' for Sony!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/24/us-northkorea-cybersecurity-youtube-idUSKBN0K210520141224
It's nice to know the difference between skeptics and the 'concerned'.

You think Sony paid Reuters to leak this story early?

[Lodestar]

162. Perhaps the whole thing was a ruse to get China's cooperation so we could take out N.K.'s

nuclear capability. At least that's what seems to have been the end result, so maybe it WAS planned.
Remember how 'someone' hacked into and messed with Iran's nuclear facilities? This may be what
the internet outage in N.K. was all about - a window of opportunity to get into their system.
This was in the reuter's story at the end of the article:

And South Korea is seeking the cooperation of Chinese authorities in a probe into a cyberattack on its nuclear power plant operator after tracing multiple Internet addresses involved to a northeastern Chinese city near North Korea, a prosecution official said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/24/us-northkorea-cybersecurity-youtube-idUSKBN0K210520141224

[dballance]

119. I'm going to go w/ Archae. One big PR Stunt

"The Interview" became available on a variety of digital platforms Wednesday afternoon, including Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft's Xbox Video and a separate Sony website"

So now, it's available in far more than homes than if it were simply widely released to theaters.

I think this was actually a brilliant marketing move by Sony and nothing else.

So much PR and now we have our idiot congress-critters saying we must all go see it as a matter of patriotism. David "Diper-Wearing w/ prostitutes" Vitter being one of the most vocal.

From what I understand it's actually not a very good movie. The fart-humor and scatological-humor would seem to be right on for adolescent males.

Now people are paying to stream it and will be filling the theatres to see it starting tomorrow. I bet taking it out of wide release won't hurt Sony's profits in the least.

Seems to me they've taken turd and made it into gold.

[X_Digger]

120. Umm, Sony intentionally pissed off all their women actors, execs, and staff for one movie?

Yeah, umm.. no.

The economic impact of the hack will far outstrip any financial gain.

[90-percent]

123. One possibility for the increasing popularity of conspiracy theories

Is that it's about when we sense being played and lied to.

And I think a significant majority of Americans now realize we were lied into the Iraq invasion by our commander in chief.

We were lied to about drones

We were lied to about torture

The government considers dissent terrorism and treats it as such.

We're overdosed with fear about global warming, economic collapse, secret totalitarian corporate trade agreements.

We've been swimming in conspiracy theories that turn out to be both true and over the top Dr. Evil plots since Bush v. Gore in 2000.

Wall Street caused the collapse of 2008 by the force of greed alone and taxpayers bailed them all out so they could continue to shower themselves with obscene $50,000 a day bonuses for doing God's work.

We're all just shell shocked over the theft of our Democracy by this could-probably-all-fit-in-a-hotel-meeting-room sized group of greedy psychopathic strangelovian Oligarchs.

And our collective cognitive dissonance tries to explain it with conspiracy theories. I'm cynical, i think we'll know who really killed JFK before we find out the real perp behind this Sony scandal.

-90% Jimmy

[SummerSnow]

124. omg , so do I. And the PR stunt worked.lol

[Warren DeMontague]

126. Mott the hoople, and the game of life...

[calimary]

133. Man, I wondered that myself.

My husband and I were talking about it yesterday and it suddenly dawned on my - what if it was Sony all along? That would be one of the most devious PR campaigns in motion picture history! Cuz it's probably gonna make a fortune, relatively speaking, of course, since it's only in - what - 300 theaters?

But I heard so much commentary about it saying it was a real so-so movie that'd probably do next to nothing in general release. But NOW it's a big controversial hot potato and everyone's gonna want to check it out to see what all the fuss was about.

Wouldn't surprise me.

[rtracey]

135. ummmm yeah right

And they got Obama and the government involved in their big Pr stunt.....stop with the eggnog

[WorseBeforeBetter]

136. I'm skeptical, like the dude from Cloudflare. Disgruntled insider a possibility.

In Plain English: Five Reasons Why Security Experts Are Skeptical North Korea Masterminded The Sony Attack

1. The Original Messages from the Hackers were About Layoffs, Not “The Interview”
2. Underground Hackers Share Code and Tools
3. IP Addresses Are Poor Evidence
4. The “Clues” Leading to North Korea Could Have Been Faked
5. North Korea but Not the Government

Both the US Government and Sony Have Political Reasons to Blame North Korea

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-security-experts-are-skeptical-that-north-korea-masterminded-the-sony-attack-2014-12#ixzz3MrwChGEb

I'm not buying the official story, nor am I losing sleep over it.

[marble falls]

138. With such a limited openning? If the movie's bad, it'll tank with a smaller numbers.

[denbot]

146. My wife and I came to the same conclusion during a phone call a couple of days ago.

If so this is the best guerilla marketing ploy since "The Blair Witch Project".

[Spitfire of ATJ]

149. Then there's the potential lawsuits from Sony employees because of violations of privacy....

All ruled null and void by this being a state sponsored cyber attack and an act of terrorism.

[TheNutcracker]

153. Agree, PR stunt. If it EVER was unsafe, they would not be showing the movie.

[BlueJazz]

155. Archae, I don't put anything past anybody. A dumb Fuck (Bush) sold a war to a lot of Dumb Fucks..

...(American People).
I feel you are wrong about this but..hey...you may be the one that knows what's really going down.

[Omnith]

156. I'm sure it's not a PR stunt. That's a conspiracy theory. Far too many people are involved.

[elzenmahn]

157. I don't think any of this was an intentional "PR Stunt" on the part of Sony...

...they've lost much more than the millions of dollars they could have made had they decided to stick to their release schedule.

They've lost a good part of their reputation and good will. They've been exposed as complete chicken-shits lacking any courage. And this stink extends to their other business units (notice how all of their subsidiaries have the word "Sony" in their names (Sony Music, Sony Pictures, Sony This, Sony That, Sony Etc.)), unlike many other conglomerates.

It will take a while for this to blow over.

[liberal_at_heart]

159. All I know is that it looks like a stupid movie and I'm certainly not going to go see it just

to be patriotic. I'd much rather spend my money on The Hobbit or Into the Woods if I were to go to the movies.

[defacto7]

160. Although I appreciate anyone

who will try to poke holes in the established stance looking for angles that may tell us more or that find a chink in the logic, I'm afraid I'll have to apply Occam's razor on this one. It does look a lot like PR flimflams we have seen in the past over and over, but the logic lies in the simple facts this time. There's way too much for SONY to loose in a PR hoax and they have lost, and they will loose more. People's credibility has been ruined and the fights will continue. The only way left for this to be a PR stunt would be if, after a year or so, SONY and all the people who took the brunt of the email release come out clean and that fish smell turns to roses. Then I'll be calling BS for sure. I don't see that happening though. Just too much to loose and it could even cost SONY a legal nightmare with the US government if it was a scam.

[reorg]

165. Wag the dog

never paid any attention to this crap when it started clogging the headlines a few days after the torture report came out ...

[JonLP24]

168. Nah

I haven't looked at the news regarding that for a few days but I have my doubts NK is involved or they have smoking gun proof but it was way too damaging. Sony Playstation was hacked but it was a little over a day so it didn't inconvenient my HBO or NBA League Pass too much but it is still bad for consumer confidence. Not to mention the unreleased movies to file sharing and inside office politics. They took a huge hit to their reputation over a buddy comedy movie that is made every year by the industry.

[LanternWaste]

169. It smells just like... irrational hysteria.

I think rats smell much like a premise based on nothing more than the logical fallacy, post hoc ergo prompter hoc. And yeah... that smell is all over the damned place-- it smells just like... irrational hysteria (which itself, smells much like chunky milk).