The Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy at the heart of the controversy involving Sony hackers racked up nearly $1 million on Christmas Day in 300 independent movie theaters around the country, according to Variety. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain, one of the staunchest supporters of screening the film, sold out all of its Christmas screenings in its 17 locations.
It's a decent haul for a movie that, due to threats of terrorism, was pulled by major theater chains such as AMC and Regal.
The Interview has also done well on video-on-demand platforms since its Wednesday release. While none of the sites has disclosed download or streaming numbers, Variety reports The Interview is the best-selling film on Google Play and YouTube Movies. And according to CNN, there were also 750,000 illegal downloads of the film on Thursday.
"The audience reaction was fantastic — the limited release, in under 10% of the amount of theaters originally planned, featured numerous sell-outs and a first-day gross over $1 million," said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony, in a statement to CNN.
Three other films look as though they're aiming for $40 million-plus holiday weekends.
The Angelina Jolie war drama Unbroken pulled in approximately $15 million on Thursday, according to Variety, while the Disney movie musical Into the Woods rang up between $12 million and $13 million and The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies garnered $12 million, doubling its Christmas Eve take.
