“The Interview” will soon be available for millions of Americans to watch for no extra cost.
Starting this Saturday, Netflix users will be able to watch the controversial Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy as party of their subscription, the company said in a letter to shareholders on Tuesday.
{mosads}The release comes just a month after a limited showing of the movie in independent theaters and on-demand services, after major theaters refused to show the movie, fearing threats of violence.
Those concerns were sparked after hackers struck Sony Pictures Entertainment — the production company behind the film — seemingly in retribution for the film’s depiction of a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Hackers at the time evoked the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and said that people who watched the film would meet a “bitter fate.”
Though the controversy surrounding the movie captured headlines and even made its way to one of President Obama’s press conference — where the president criticized the studio’s initial move to cancel the film’s release entirely — the film has failed to impress critics. According to critic aggregator website Metacritic, the movie has received a score of just 52 out of 100.
Still, fans are tuning in.
Sony on Tuesday said that it had earned a total of $40 million through digital sales of the movie and another $6 million at box offices, making it easily the best grossing movie ever to come out concurrently in theaters and on-demand. Still, the movie cost around $75 million to produce and market, and has a ways to go to recoup those costs.