$15 Million Comes from Online Sales
On a weekend where both Unbroken and Into the
Woods grossed over $30 million, and still lost to
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (which
made $41 million this weekend), I don’t know
how The Interview would have fared as a
standard theatrical release. Boxoffice.com [via
Yahoo! ] estimates that the $44 million film would
have grossed $20 million. But cyberterrorist
threats against movie theaters ultimately led the
picture to indie cinemas and VOD, and The
Interview ended up scoring $18 million with $15
million of that coming from VOD sales. VOD
numbers aren’t usually released, but it would look
suspicious if that part the gross was kept secret
since this film has such a high profile. And really,
there would be no reason to keep it secret since
The Interview was virtually guaranteed to be the
highest grossing VOD release from the studio
thanks to all of the controversy. Additionally,
Yahoo! reports that the opening total will be even
higher once iTunes’ revenue is added (Apple
didn’t carry the movie until Sunday).
It will be interesting to see how much The
Interview grosses and if it will ever end up in
major theater chains. But no matter the
outcome, please don’t be one of those people
who think that all of this was a viral marketing
campaign. Those people sound silly.
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