With the announcement of the controversial film “The Interview” online and in select theaters just before Christmas, some online players were absent. Notably, Netflix, Hulu and Apple. Now Apple has jumped onto the bandwagon by making “The Interview” available on iTunes. The company made a really brief statement about this to re/code:
“we’re pleased to offer ‘The Interview’ for rental or purchase on the iTunes store”
That’s it. Seriously. That’s all they said. It’s available in the US and Canada for $6 to rent and $15 to own. Very curious. I guess Apple wanted to get a piece of the pie seeing as the movie has netted about $15 million in online sales and rentals:
That handily beats the estimated $2.8 million the film earned over the same time period in theaters. However, only a relatively small sampling of independent theaters carried the film — had the major theater chains been willing to show The Interview, these numbers would likely be very different.
Sources tell The Verge that the vast majority of the film’s sales came through YouTube and Google Play Movies. The film was also available on Xbox Video and a dedicated Sony website, and as of this afternoon, Apple’s iTunes Store. The figures reported by Sony today only include sales through Saturday, so the final weekend count will be a bit larger.
Seeing as Sony is making back the $44 million the film reportedly cost via online and limited theater release, one has to wonder if other studios might try the same thing?
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This entry was posted on December 28, 2014 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Sony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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The Interview Now Available In Canada Via iTunes As It Nets $15 Million Online
With the announcement of the controversial film “The Interview” online and in select theaters just before Christmas, some online players were absent. Notably, Netflix, Hulu and Apple. Now Apple has jumped onto the bandwagon by making “The Interview” available on iTunes. The company made a really brief statement about this to re/code:
“we’re pleased to offer ‘The Interview’ for rental or purchase on the iTunes store”
That’s it. Seriously. That’s all they said. It’s available in the US and Canada for $6 to rent and $15 to own. Very curious. I guess Apple wanted to get a piece of the pie seeing as the movie has netted about $15 million in online sales and rentals:
That handily beats the estimated $2.8 million the film earned over the same time period in theaters. However, only a relatively small sampling of independent theaters carried the film — had the major theater chains been willing to show The Interview, these numbers would likely be very different.
Sources tell The Verge that the vast majority of the film’s sales came through YouTube and Google Play Movies. The film was also available on Xbox Video and a dedicated Sony website, and as of this afternoon, Apple’s iTunes Store. The figures reported by Sony today only include sales through Saturday, so the final weekend count will be a bit larger.
Seeing as Sony is making back the $44 million the film reportedly cost via online and limited theater release, one has to wonder if other studios might try the same thing?
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This entry was posted on December 28, 2014 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Sony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.