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Reagen Sulewski: You know, while I obviously feel this is ultimately a foolish decision to capitulate to probably non-existent threats, I also have to recognize that I really have basically nothing personally at stake in this, and it's very easy for me to criticize those that do in this story. I'm not risking any money or bodily harm, whatever slight chance there actually is for that, and it's very easy for me to ask others to do so. It's not particularly fair and anyone close to this who feels even the slightest bit skittish has the right to feel scared and react accordingly. I do, however, feel that this not the last we've seen of this film, and whether it's just waiting until a bit of the heat dies down, or whether it gets "leaked" at some point, we are going to get to see this film, and it's going to be incredibly popular, and a huge let down.

Kim Hollis: The part of me that loves movies, books, music, and all kinds of art in general is bothered by the precedent this sets. People shouldn't feel intimidated about the kind of story they want to tell. It's frustrating to me that a country/leader as ridiculous as North Korea/Kim Jong-Un could precipitate events such as the ones that have been happening over the last couple of weeks simply because he takes insult at a piece of fiction.

On the other hand, the former claims adjuster in me understands the reasoning here. Even if we're being told that there is no credibility to the threats that were made against movie theaters, we can't ignore the fact that a threat *was* made. If movie theaters and Sony ignored the threats as a matter of principle and then something *did* happen to one theater or a dozen, whether from real terrorists or crazy opportunists taking advantage of the situation, they would be liable for every injury or death. If we follow through the basic principle of negligence, the theaters/studio could be presumed to have a duty to ensure the safety of their patrons. People should be able to go to the movie theater in a safe environment without fear of injury. The theater company's/studio's foreknowledge of a potential attack and then ignoring that knowledge would be a breach of their duty to maintain that safe environment. There might be a little gray area about whether their actions directly caused any injury, but it's hard to argue that if they hadn't shown the film, people would not be injured. Even if the theaters and studio were ultimately cleared of any negligence (and I'm very doubtful that would happen), the time and money spent fighting these cases, not to mention the bad publicity, would damage them infinitely more than not releasing a Seth Rogen movie. There can be little doubt that the legal departments of Sony and the various movie theater corporations made this call.

I'm also going to throw this out there, but the fact that Paramount also banned theaters from showing Team America: World Police this weekend makes me suspect there is more heft to the threats than is being publicly discussed.

There's also a lot of chatter from people wondering why Sony doesn't just go ahead and release it VOD, but if the hackers are likely to succeed in causing damage anywhere, this is the place where it's most likely to happen. You have to worry that credit cards would be hacked and that the studio would then be looking at an entirely different kind of damage that could certainly have been mitigated/prevented.

And I think a lot of people who are screaming about not being able to see their Seth Rogen comedy right now would be singing a very different tune if something happened because Sony so "bravely" stood up to the terrorists. Not all - I think many people would hold strong to those principles, but consistency is not something I've come to expect in situations like these.

What's happened here is unprecedented. A film has been pulled from release eight days before it was to hit theaters, supposedly never to see the light of day in any form. Big Trouble was the other film that immediately came to mind as it was scheduled for release on September 21, 2001. That made sense as an important plot point was that a bomb was on a plane. (Yes, it was also a comedy.)

However potentially credible the threats made regarding theaters showing The Interview are, this is ridiculous and potentially causes a problem for the future any time anyone disagrees with the content of a film or how someone or something is portrayed.

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