'The Interview' a classic Hollywood publicity stunt

[no_hypocrisy]

-snip-

We weren’t born yesterday. This movie was designed to be a Hollywood flack’s dream, and we should all keep that in mind as we wrap ourselves in the America flag and decry the hacking and threats that Sony invited on itself with its insulting movie as some kind of assault on free speech.

-more-

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/the_interview_a_classic_hollywood_publicity_stunt_di_ionno.html

[Logical]

1. Oh FFS, people love conspiracies! No logic required! nt

[Fred Sanders]

9. Yep. Fiction is more fun than fact, just make stuff up, the marks can barely tell the difference.

[doc03]

2. Now that just don't seem very smart of them. What did they accomplish with just a

limited showing? They sure aren't going to profit by this great conspiracy.

[JDPriestly]

18. Maybe the point was a tax write-off although I doubt it because the information that was

leaked from Sony's internal memos and e-mails insulted a lot of people.

But the tax write-off would otherwise be a possibility. Remember the film, The Producers, about the fellows who produced a Broadway play (I think) that was so bad it was intended to flop so that they could show losses.

I don't think that Sony would publish insulting statements about Angelina Jolie or anyone else just for a tax write-off, but I could be crazy wrong about that.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

32. It's a write off.

Lol

I love it when people use the Kramer school of accounting.

https://m.

[Califa]

24. What they did is

get a lot of free publicity for a movie and generate interest. Through "normal" distribution it would have completely bombed and lost money because the movie sucks or mediocre at best. They generated interest with a publicity stunt and in turn the movie will see a profit or at least break even.

[Hari Seldon]

3. best marketing campaign ever

this movie will be famous for years and will make tons more money than it ever could have made otherwise

[Logical]

6. Bullshit! Do the math! nt

[Kalidurga]

4. Mark Di Ionno

sounds like an idiot.

[Lodestar]

5. Yeah, and if you play it backwards you hear "Kim is dead" and "I buried Kim"...!!! n/t

[LiberalElite]

15. LOL!!! nt

[Lodestar]

20. . . . . >

thanks....tough room!

[LiberalElite]

25. I was around for all

that Paul is dead stuff - all you had to do was play the album backwards to find THE TRUTH....who'd go to the trouble? I never believed it.

[MindPilot]

7. If Sony was that good at marketing, they wouldn't have had to sell their TV factory to Foxconn.

This guy is long on opinion, but short on facts.

[Fred Sanders]

8. How the media turned this bad movie being hacked into some kind of freedom of speech issue shows

exactly how gullible and stupid they think audience is.

This bad movie with the silly plot was going to lose millions...now?...maybe a few million less in losses.

[Beaverhausen]

11. Probably didn't cost much and would have made a good profit

You may not like them but Rogen and Franco have an audience.

[Fred Sanders]

12. Production costs were 41 million...advertising and distributions costs to come......

[Beaverhausen]

14. Like I said. Didn't cost much

[NYC Liberal]

21. Lose millions? It was EASILY going to make tens of millions. Or more.

Rogen's last two movies alone have grossed over $250 million worldwide.

It WAS going to make money. Now they will lost a shit-ton on it because no major theater chain will be showing it. That's some "PR stunt".

[zappaman]

28. It's amazing what people post about this with absolutely NO knowledge of how the industry works

You are right.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

33. It's a write off!!!!

https://m.

[tammywammy]

34. Not industry

How business, the world, reality works. To think that Sony would release damaging emails to bolster publicity for a silly comedy is beyond ridiculous.

[Fred Sanders]

42. That is NOT what is being stated......folks seem unaware of the history of Sony negotiating with

the hackers in secret for weeks before the racist and embarrassing emails were released, by the jilted hackers, not Sony......do the math.

[NYC Liberal]

48. Maybe the BFEE did it.

[zappaman]

49. Finally someone makes sense!

[jakeXT]

10. Amy's father was a RAND economist

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Pascal

[KeepItReal]

13. Without the Sony hack, the movie would have been a typical successful Franco/Rogan vehicle

"This is the End" cost around $32 million to make and grossed over $100 million in the US alone.

"The Interview" may take awhile longer to hit $100 million since it is only shown in hundreds of theaters instead of thousands. And who knows how many people will pay to stream it online.

Sony bumbled the response to the hacking from day one.

Releasing the movie in as many formats as possible was one of the smarter things they've done. I'd chalk that up to hiring the real life Olivia Pope to fix the situation.

[zappaman]

29. Exactly.

[Puglover]

16. I am no rocket scientist.

But I saw this the instant this story broke. Such rank bullshit.

[zappaman]

30. You're not someone who works in the movie business either, are you?

Cuz if you were, you would know that you are wrong.

[True Blue Door]

17. "Invited on itself"? This is a liberal website. Take that shit somewhere more appropriate.

[NYC Liberal]

19. Nonsense. The movie was going to make millions if it'd been released as planned.

So releasing hundreds of very embarrassing, private emails from executives and quite probably ruining a number of relationships with high-profile stars -- not to mention inviting all the lawsuits that are guaranteed to come -- is part of this "publicity stunt"?

Some people see a conspiracy in everything. Guess it makes life more interesting.

[Fred Sanders]

22. Part of turning a pig's ear into a purse...yes. There was a hack...but who? There was a blackmail,

no doubt, and a hacker release of info., but acussing NK of "cyberwar", and then saying they were threatened so they would not release it, and then releasing it......stunt.

[NYC Liberal]

23. A "stunt" to lose millions and create a PR nightmare.

By the way, it was the theater chains who pulled it first. That was the reason Sony pulled it altogether: because it wasn't going to be shown anywhere.

Then, no doubt, they started working quickly on an alternate release plan and rushed to cut deals with several online content providers. Those deals can be rushed but they don't happen overnight.

[zappaman]

31. And costly as well.

DU loves a good conspiracy though!

[Fred Sanders]

37. There is a dispute about that. Sony was negotiating with the hackers for almost a month...Sony

CEO said that. What would the NK government want to negotiate, for a month, if all they wanted was to stop the silly movie? The hackers wanted money they did not get. So, they release internal embarrassing emails? For what? Fun? No, as revenge for not getting any money.

It was Sony who said the hackers wanted the film stopped from release.......after the hackers released the emails...and have you seen the hackers written demands and language...it is comical.

Nope. Not NK. A common corporate hack...THEN turned into a publicity stunt by Sony....why not?

If it is the NK government, I am wrong. If it is just hackers, I am right....I like to keep any open mind, others can close theirs and trust the mass media...free country.

P.S. How many other films was Sony going to release this season, just this one film....so it became the target of blackmail after a hack of Sony's computers...that is was about N.K. was just a coincidence for the hackers, they did not care, all they wanted was money.

[zappaman]

46. SONY also released ANNIE last week.

Also after the hack.
And I also do not think this was NK.

[NYC Liberal]

47. Why not? Because they've stood to lose millions of dollars, destroyed the reputations of top execs,

and ruined relationships with several high-profile actors. This whole thing has generated publicity, that's for sure, but absolutely not the kind Sony Pictures wants. It doesn't matter whether it was the North Korean government or random crackers; it certainly was not a "publicity stunt" from the start.

THEN turned into a publicity stunt by Sony....why not?

A company trying to turn a bad situation around? How dare they. The fact that it ended up being released on other mediums does not mean the whole thing was planned from the beginning. The theaters pulled the film after the threat was made. Then Sony pulled the release entirely after there would be almost nowhere to show it. They then scrambled to secure deals with content providers to release it online.

[zappaman]

50. All true.

But your spoiling the nonsensical theories!

[Drunken Irishman]

26. Sony took a huge image blow from this.

I doubt they'd drag their image through the mud just to drum up publicity for a movie that would've been pretty popular without the scandal.

[Fred Sanders]

41. You are missing the point...the hackers started this with a real hack, remember?

Last edited Thu Dec 25, 2014, 04:45 PM - Edit history (1)

This new thread is interesting..


http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026003954

[Drunken Irishman]

45. I thought the point was that Sony did it themselves for a PR stunt?

[on point]

27. Delusional conspiracy nutcase invention. Not a Hollywood stunt.

Before putting forth such conspiracy nonsense, please provide some evidence. Otherwise this post is just junk.

Apparently you were born yesterday if you fall for, or invent, such foolishness

[Fred Sanders]

38. What evidence has been provided it is the NK government, I have seen zilch?

[on point]

43. I haven't seen evidence it is NK either. But neither is it a 'stunt' to promote the film

The goal to promote the film would be for it to make 'more' money than it would otherwise. SONY is going to lose FAR more money in this 'stunt' than it could ever make on the film. At this point I pretty much doubt the film will even break even, plus their other massive corporate losses. That pretty much shoots the whole 'they did it to promote the film' meme in the ass it is.

[Fred Sanders]

44. "Stunt" is the wrong word....opportunity seized? Make the best of a bad situation by saying the

hackers were NK government?

What were the NK government and Sony negotiating in secret for almost a month before all this broke with the hacker release of some emails? Why would NK want to go through all that..it makes no sense.

It makes a lot more sense if they were just your usual money grubbing hackers doing extortion.

[kentuck]

35. People are starving for entertainment..

It's Christmas. Just throw together any piece of crap and put it out there. It doesn't have to have any artistic value, so long as it makes money. If we can create controversy, by whatever means, so much the better...

[oldandhappy]

36. yep!!!

Agree.

[PeteSelman]

39. What nonsense.

Let's expose our employees, embarrass our executives and stars, disclose salaries and get our movie pulled from the thousands of theaters it was going to be shown in for a stunt.

If that's what this was, the architect of the idea should be drawn and quartered. It would be the dumbest idea ever.

[Fred Sanders]

40. Sony was hacked over two months ago, real hackers started this chain of events, not Sony...

[kentuck]

51. Wait until the final numbers come out...

..and see how well it really did? I don't think it was headed to stardom?