--- title: 'The Interview': Sony Should Stream Pulled Movie Now description: The Seth Rogen and James Franco flick is arguably America's first literal culture war — and free speech lost canonical: https://time.com/3639215/sony-hack-threat-stream-the-interview-now/ author: James Poniewozik article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-18T00:43:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:57:43.908Z article:section: Ideas og:title: "Sony Should Stream 'The Interview' — Now" og:description: The Seth Rogen and James Franco flick is arguably America's first literal culture war—and free speech lost og:url: https://time.com/3639215/sony-hack-threat-stream-the-interview-now/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7807a348291e2d3/69876fadf887dcf6cae891d2/time-a-the-interview-141217.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A poster for the movie "The Interview" is taken down by a worker after being pulled from a display case at a Carmike Cinemas movie theater, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, in Atlanta. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: "Sony Should Stream 'The Interview' — Now" twitter:description: The Seth Rogen and James Franco flick is arguably America's first literal culture war—and free speech lost twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7807a348291e2d3/69876fadf887dcf6cae891d2/time-a-the-interview-141217.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sony Should Stream _The Interview_ — Now by [James Poniewozik](https://time.com/author/james-poniewozik/) ## James Poniewozik Dec 18, 2014 12:43 AM UTC  A poster for the movie The Interview is taken down by a worker after being pulled from a display case at a Carmike Cinemas movie theater on Dec. 17, 2014, in Atlanta A poster for the movie The Interview is taken down by a worker after being pulled from a display case at a Carmike Cinemas movie theater on Dec. 17, 2014, in AtlantaDavid Goldman—AP by [James Poniewozik](https://time.com/author/james-poniewozik/) ## James Poniewozik Dec 18, 2014 12:43 AM UTC The hacking of Sony and the threats against theaters planning to screen _The Interview_ is arguably America’s first literal culture war. And the battle just claimed a big casualty: Sony announced, after several distributors pulled out, that it was canceling the Dec. 25 release of the Seth Rogen comedy, which depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Plain and simple, free speech lost a battle here. It may have been inevitable, after the massive cyberattack on Sony’s computer data was followed by violent threats against theaters. The fear of violence and legal repercussions — and, maybe, the aura of danger created by the hacking — was enough for major theater chains to pull out. Sony, already in a corporate nightmare, was running out of places to screen the movie. None of this was especially brave, but it was corporations acting as corporations do, in their interest, not on principle. But in a statement after the decision, Sony argued that there was a principle at stake: “We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.” O.K., then: if Sony supports the American public and its filmmakers’ right to free expression, then it should let the American people see their filmmakers’ work. In our living rooms, if necessary. If theaters are afraid to show _The Interview_, make it available, as soon as possible, through home streaming on demand. The technology is in place. The legal and business arrangements may be more difficult (one reason that studios have avoided immediate VOD release, ironically, is resistance from theater chains), but reportedly Sony has [considered it as an option](http://variety.com/2014/film/news/sony-weighing-premium-vod-release-for-the-interview-exclusive-1201381920/). Sony’s absolutely right that this is an effort to suppress a movie. And right now, after their action, it’s worked. Which gives angry parties — foreign states or anyone with an axe to grind — incentive to do it again. (Already, a Steve Carell thriller set in North Korea [has been scuttled](http://deadline.com/2014/12/north-korea-thriller-gore-verbinski-steve-carell-canceled-new-regency-1201328532/).) Maybe Sony is waiting to see if it can put the film in theaters later; maybe it’s afraid of further cyberrepercussions. But if this is an issue of principle, then act like it. Americans have broadband, big-screen TVs, and plenty of free time around Christmas. Give us the chance to make our own statement, if we so choose, to show that we don’t want bullies squelching our expression. Artists and audiences lost an unprecedented battle here. But we can still win the war, even if we have to do it in our living rooms. _Read next:_ [_U.S. Links North Korea to Hack_](http://time.com/3639237/sony-hack-north-korea-the-interview/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3639215/sony-hack-threat-stream-the-interview-now/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3639215/sony-hack-threat-stream-the-interview-now/"},"headline":"Sony Should Stream The Interview — Now","datePublished":"2014-12-18T00:43:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:57:43.908Z","description":"The Seth Rogen and James Franco flick is arguably America's first literal culture war — and free speech lost","url":"https://time.com/3639215/sony-hack-threat-stream-the-interview-now/","keywords":["movies","entertainment"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7807a348291e2d3/69876fadf887dcf6cae891d2/time-a-the-interview-141217.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Poniewozik","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/james-poniewozik/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte7807a348291e2d3/69876fadf887dcf6cae891d2/time-a-the-interview-141217.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A poster for the movie \"The Interview\" is taken down by a worker after being pulled from a display case at a Carmike Cinemas movie theater, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, in Atlanta.","caption":"A poster for the movie \"The Interview\" is taken down by a worker after being pulled from a display case at a Carmike Cinemas movie theater, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, in Atlanta.","creditText":"David Goldman—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3639215/sony-hack-threat-stream-the-interview-now/","name":"Sony Should Stream The Interview — Now"}}]}] ```