Seth Rogen told Howard Stern in an interview this week that he and Evan Goldberg make comedies for a reasonable amount of money. That's how he explains why he's allowed to make ridiculous movies in the first place. But the amount that Sony stands to lose on The Interview is not reasonable. It is insane.
According to a report by Variety, the studio could lose $75 million on the (apparently not that great) North Korea comedy if it never gets released. Sony said yesterday it had no plans to do so, in any format. The report cites $44 million that Sony spent on making the film, plus another $30 million it spent on marketing.
Did it feel like you'd been seeing a lot of commercials and posters for this thing? Yeah, that's what $30 million gets you. And considering we were only just over a week away from release when Sony decided to shelve it due to theaters refusing to show the film in the wake of terrorist threats, the studio had already spent most of the marketing budget.
An industry analyst told Variety that if Sony had decided to release The Interview on Video on Demand, it probably would have made huge money, but "without a theatrical run it would be almost impossible to make the money back” that Sony spent. It's also unclear if the production's insurance will cover the shelving.
This whole situation makes this Rogen quote from a recent Rolling Stone story really funny/sad/ironic:
"They're giving us insane amounts of money to do whatever the fuck we want. Jonah Hill was at the table read, and afterward he went up to Amy" – that's Amy Pascal, the head of their studio – "and was like, 'I can't believe you're letting them make this fucking movie.' And she was like, 'I can't either!'
[Via Variety]
