Sony certainly made an interesting decision when it chose to release The Interview through web-based services, but then again, the situation was very unique. That decision seems to be paying off, however, as the film is not only doing extremely well on Sony’s own services, but has risen to become the best-selling movie on both Google Play and YouTube.
Sony Pictures’ “The Interview” is the top-grossing movie of the year for Google Inc. (GOOG), after earning $15 million in online sales and rentals from all sources through Saturday. The tally on Google’s Play and YouTube outlets, Xbox and other Web sources, dwarfs the $2.84 million the Seth Rogen comedy took in this past weekend from movie theaters. “This Is the End,” Rogen’s directorial debut, generated $20.7 million in its opening weekend in 2013. Google spokeswoman Michelle Slavich declined to provide a figure for how much the movie generated on the company’s sites. The sales, an online record for Sony Pictures, will partly mitigate financial damage caused by the so-called Guardians of Peace, the hacking group that broke into the company’s computers and released confidential corporate and personnel information. The studio, which is based in Culver City, California, spent an estimated $80 million making and marketing the film.
