‘The Interview’ May Inspire a New Business Approach

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” has stolen the show the third week in a row since its release on December 17. The recent weekend receipts of $21.9 million drove up its domestic total to $220.8 million at the box office, according to Rentrak, a box office revenue tracking service.

The premiere of Columbia Pictures' "The Interview," at The Theatre in the Ace Hotel, in downtown Los Angeles, on Dec. 11, 2014. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES—“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” has stolen the show the third week in a row since its release on December 17. The recent weekend receipts of $21.9 million drove up its domestic total to $220.8 million at the box office, according to Rentrak, a box office revenue tracking service. Yet not all that surprisingly, the talk of the town remains the “The Interview,” the controversial comedy—hyped variously as “screwball,” “over-the-top” and “raunchy”—about two puerile, toilet-mouthed newsmen enmeshed in a plot to assassinate the real-life president of North Korea Kim Jung-un.

After “The Interview ”grossed $2.8 million the first weekend of its limited Christmas Day release to 331 theaters nationwide, it tumbled to just $1.2 million the second weekend.

Despite low box office receipts, not all is bad news for “The Interview.” SONY Pictures, distributor of the film, may have charted new ground in movie releases. Sony reported on January 6 that its video-on-demand (VOD) with Google Play and YouTube is booming, having made $31 million to date. Viewers have the option to rent online at $6 a stream or $15 to own. Industry analysts consider this way of rolling out new releases the harbinger of future feature film releases.

Patrons wait in line to see "The Interview" at the Valley Art theater in Tempe, Ariz., on Dec. 25. AP Photo/Alina Hartounian