The Interview—the film lampooning North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that wasn’t, then was—will be available to stream on Netflix in the United States and Canada starting on Saturday, Jan. 24.
Major theater chains yanked the film from its Christmasy Day release after the Sony hackers threatened any theaters showing it. A few hundred smaller theaters still screened the movie without incident, and Sony followed by releasing it in multiple formats online. You can now add the largest streaming service in the world to that list.
Sony reported today that The Interview has made $40 million since Christmas, only $4 million shy of the film’s budget (though Variety reports that the film cost $75 million, including production and marketing). Nearly all of the $40 million it made came from its 5.8 million rentals and purchases; Sony made hardly anything off actual ticket sales.
Netflix made the announcement in its usual letter to shareholders (pdf), which it releases along with every quarterly earnings report. Really, it was only a matter of time: Netflix already does business with Sony, and CEO Reed Hastings revealed that he was on team The Interview in early December.
Now, the controversial comedy will be available to stream by Netflix’s 57 million subscribers—a figure the company also divulged today in its earnings release.
Netflix will start streaming “The Interview” on Jan. 24
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