alnorth |
12-19-2014 03:22 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by underEJ
(Post 11202720)
Dane is pretty much dead on. There is no way Sony can risk releasing this for business reasons, right now anyway, and American freedom has nothing to do with it.
Every entertainment company on the planet is trying to move into the lucrative, massive and still rapidly growing Chinese film market. It is the single most important movie release market in the world for the next decade or two. They are currently sifting through offers from entertainment companies to decide who gets in. This is tens of billions of dollars of future revenue. China is the support structure for NK, and releasing it could cost Sony all of their Chinese releases even if that threat is never made by China (very few western films get released in China per year.)
Content is already adapted to be more appealing to that market and its censors, and most films that get released without any cuts or changes are family fare that wouldn't tend to offend anyone. Most of the others get cut in some way to be selected for release.
Sony has alot more to lose than the costs of production on one movie. Celebrities can bemoan all they want, it is a business decision by a Japanese company to cut losses.
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The problem with this theory is that China is almost as annoyed with NK as we are. Their interest in propping up NK has more to do with a desire to not have refugees flood into China, not for any love of the Kims, who have repeatedly irritated Chinese leaders as well. They are not going to be offended by this movie. Also, Sony did try to release it even in the height of the controversy, it was the theaters who pulled back out of stupid cowardice.
I fully expect Sony to release the movie later, either in theaters or on VOD, especially now that they have been called out by the president. Sony now risks American anger and boycotts. Even as we speak, Sony's CEO is scrambling in interviews, basically hinting that we're eventually going to have the movie available.
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