By Alexa Gonzales
Editor-in-Chief

The Interview is now Sony Pictures’ number one online movie of all time, earning $15 million in online sales and an additional $3 million in select theaters since its release on Christmas Eve.

The Interview has grossed $18 million since its online and limited theater release last week. Photo Credit: NPR

The Interview, a comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, has a fictional plot centered on the assassination of North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. The film was originally pulled from theaters following threats from the massive hack on Sony Pictures that the US stated was launched by North Korea.

The movie was then given a limited release at 331 theaters and made available for download online on various websites such as GooglePlay, YouTube, Xbox Video Stores, and Sony’s seetheinterview.com.

However, the film’s online availability made it easy for the film to be pirated. In less than 24 hours since its online release on Christmas Eve, the film was illegally downloaded over 900,000 times on file-sharing websites.

Despite the piracy, the movie has grossed over $15 million from online purchases and rentals, making The Interview Sony’s top online movie.

The film’s successful sales, both online and at the box office for select theaters, are not far from Sony’s expectations before the film was pulled from theaters.

“This is almost what it was going to do theatrically before it was pulled,” said Jeff Bock, a box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations.

“It made about what people expected, but in a completely different way.”