Critics and early viewers are agreed that The Interview is less than a masterpiece, but thanks to threats from hackers that nearly derailed its release, it has become an event.
Hundreds of US cinemas, from The Edge 8 in Greenville, Alabama, to Michael Moore’s Bijou by the Bay in Traverse City, Michigan, made special Christmas Day arrangements for the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
But with US President Barack Obama among others criticising the decision, Sony bosses changed their minds.
“We are taking a stand for freedom,” said Lee Peterson, manager of the Cinema Village East in Manhattan, where most of Thursday’s seven screenings had sold out by early afternoon.
We chose the path of digital distribution first so as to reach as many people as possible on opening day
“We want to show the world that Americans will not be told what we can or cannot watch. Personally, I am not afraid.”
At the Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, a sell-out crowd hailed the film’s release.
They washed down popcorn with beer and cocktails and united for a boisterous sing-along of God Bless America before the opening credits went up.
“This is way more fun than it would have been,” said Jim Kelley, who waited outside with his daughter Shannon.
“This is almost dangerous, like we’re living life on the edge,” he joked.
The back story of The Interview has itself played out like a Hollywood satire in which a cartoonish farce distracts from some of the holiday season’s most prestigious films such as Selma, the drama about the 1965 civil rights march, Angelina Jolie’s adaptation of the best-selling World War II story Unbroken and the all-star, big-screen version of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods.
Security was light at many cinemas, with the occasional police officer on hand.
The possibility of violence was taken more seriously by the movie industry than by the government. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement saying that there were no credible threats.
Meanwhile, Darrell Foxworth, a special agent for the FBI in San Diego, said the agency was sharing information with independent cinema owners showing The Interview out of “an abundance of caution” and to educate them about cyber-threats and what help the FBI could offer.
Kim Song, a North Korean diplomat to the UN, condemned the release, calling the movie an “unpardonable mockery of our sovereignty and dignity of our supreme leader”.
But he said that North Korea would probably limit its response to condemnation, with no “physical reaction”.
Decisions to show the film through the internet could open up companies to hacking. Xbox and PlayStation’s online gaming services were down on Thursday night but the cause was unclear.
Meanwhile, YouTube and other Google products were not having any disruptions.