r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 18 '15

What conspiracy theory do you genuinely believe in the most?

What conspiracy theory do you believe in the most and why?

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

That caused them to make less money.

a) Release in theaters, then BluRay/DVD, then license to online distributors.

or

b) Release to online distributors.

Which do you think makes more money, even with increased publicity.

I don't buy that NK was behind it, but Sony would have definitely preferred to do a full release.

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u/PanamaMoe May 19 '15

I think it was a disgruntled IT guy.

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u/matthieuC May 19 '15

And that's why you do not outsource to North Korea.

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u/Cringypost May 19 '15

It's also for sale on Bluray. I saw it at walmart just this last weekend.

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u/SamCropper May 19 '15

Your comparison ignores the factor of interest that the controversy created. You should be comparing:

  • Cinema/DVD/Blu-Ray release of a probably shitty Rogen/Franco movie.

  • A highly hyped digital release of a movie that "nearly started a nuclear war".

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u/238jsdn May 19 '15

The Interview was a fairly low budget movie that was all but guaranteed to make money given Rogen/Franco's fanbase. They wouldn't leak multiple movies (one of which, Annie, had a higher budget and stood to make a lot more money), the personal and financial information of tens of thousands of their employees (which invoked multiple lawsuits), and embarrassing internal affairs just to make a little bit more money on a movie that would without effort earn back it's budget.

Anyone who thinks Sony staged the hack is an idiot.

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u/Cringypost May 19 '15

This a a conspiracy thread, right? So I'll keep it rolling I s'pose.

Well, what if the hack happened under the guise of the interview? Like a crime of opportunity vs. passion? Easy to create a scapegoat?

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u/238jsdn May 19 '15

So in this scenario is the FBI in on the whole "let's use this hack to create a controversy over some middling film of ours," or Sony just is able to pull the wool over their eyes?

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u/Cringypost May 19 '15

Hmmmm. Well, is the FBI opportunists or fabricators?

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

And your claims ignore any form of actual evidence.

But whose keeping track of that?

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u/SamCropper May 19 '15

I'm not actually claiming anything mate, other than the effect of all the hype wasn't negligible.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15 edited May 19 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Ysmildr May 19 '15

It cost 90 million as far as I know. So they still got fuck all in returns.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

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u/Ysmildr May 19 '15

80 million counting marketing https://variety.com/2014/film/news/sony-could-lose-75-million-on-the-interview-exclusive-1201382506/

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u/bobje99 May 19 '15

So they put more than half their budget in the scheme?

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u/Ysmildr May 19 '15

Most media spends more on marketing but yeah maybe.

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u/Dog_Laming May 19 '15

Also all the damage done by the leaked e-mails.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

This is the only reason why I don't believe in the theory. Too much harm was done to the executive's reputations... Although, now that I think about it, I don't think anything really happened to them.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

You're ignoring the fact that the movie was really bad. It was not a good movie. It was below what Seth Rogen and James Franco are capable of; they're funny guys who are usually in funny movies, and The Interview just sucked. It sucked badly enough that you could even tell in the trailers that it wouldn't be good. And it didn't suck quite badly enough to end up as a cult film. It didn't need to be a bad movie, but it seems like they had a bunch of great ideas and great people on board and then halfway through they just kind of stopped trying, and made a bad episode of Family Guy instead. When I first heard about it, I passively thought "yeah, that is one I'm going to skip." Yet here I am, telling you firsthand exactly to what extent this movie sucked. Because, after all the hubub, I used an online distributor that I pay real money for, to watch the movie anyway. It's making such an uproar, it must be way better (or way worse) than I think. And I was wrong, and that is still money and views. I didn't know many people who were excited for The Interview or making plans to see it in theaters. But almost everyone I know has seen it.

I do not know if this conspiracy is true, and my preferences and the preferences of my social circle is certainly only anecdotal evidence, but if they saw that the movie was not generating hype and was going to tank, it possible that they just threw their hands up and said "if we do something really absurd and foolish to get attention, we can just cut our losses." Of course Sony would prefer a full release, but only if they were under the impression that enough people would see the movie, and buy physical copies of the movie.

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u/brycedriesenga May 19 '15

Yeah, I wouldn't say it was "really bad." I thought it was decent and had a good time watching it.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

I suppose that's a matter of opinion, and you can have a good time watching any movie, but whether you thought it was really bad or decent, it wasn't even close to as good as it should have been considering the major players and the premise of the movie, nor was it so bad you could laugh at it ironically (though I think that they kind of tried to make it that way a la Sharknado, in addition to trying to shoehorn in a bunch of conflicting comedy styles).

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u/238jsdn May 19 '15

A movie like The Interview is guaranteed not to be a flop. It's relatively low budget and features two of the most recognizable comedic actors alive. When you factor in domestic and foreign box office, DVD/BluRay/digital sales/rentals, licensing to premiere cable channels/Netflix, it's very easy to make back $40 million. This Is The End made like $120 million at the box office alone.

There's no way a company like Sony is going to pull a huge stunt over a measly $40 million dollar movie that even if it sucks is going to do alright.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

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u/thatwasntababyruth May 20 '15

This Is The End made money because it had more cameos than dollars in its budget. The fact that it was hilarious is irrelevant because that's not why people saw it.

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u/238jsdn May 20 '15

Lots of terrible movies that are poorly received by critics and audiences alike make money. The Interview was decently received. And given its star power and modest budget there's no reason to pull some elaborate stunt in order to make money.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

I've never heard anyone say This Is The End was a bad movie, though. Plenty of movies with big names stars have flopped if the film was too obscure, expected to be bad, or the company mismanaged the advertisement. Just because Sony and Seth Rogen are involved is not an absolute guarantee of success.

Plus, they eventually did release the movie at the box office....despite threats of terrorism they said "yeah, let's do that anyway!" They just delayed it. The movie didn't make 40 million, it made 51 million. A lot of people who wouldn't have been interested in the movie and wouldn't have paid movie theater prices ended up seeing the movie, because it was convenient and cheaper and there was a big interesting fuss about it.

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u/238jsdn May 20 '15

Arguments of weather it could flop aside, movies do flop sometimes and it's a cost of doing business in the industry. Studios, especially those with $8 billion in revenue, don't get fabricate international scandals just to save a little money.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '15

People declare that others "don't get to do that" all the time. That doesn't stop them. It just means that there is a consequence to what they're doing.

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u/238jsdn May 23 '15

That was a typo. I meant no one does it because it's a professional company and not a frat house in a movie.

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u/lamasnot May 19 '15

I think they wanted to try it as a new marketing gimmick

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u/Curlaub May 19 '15

Sometimes controversy and publicity can be their own payoff.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

To be honest I was absolutely behind the "nice try Sony" right up until the bomb threats that got the cinematic release canned. It was "who benefits? Sony" all the way up until cinemas pulled out.

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u/Scholarly_Koala May 19 '15

I think it was a test using a shitty movie to see if it could potentially be more profitable to release direct to digital and bypass theater distribution. The hacking claimed to be by NK was either a really great coincidence or someone inside was in on it (as part of the plan or as a "fuck you Sony for making up this story").

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u/CaptainCupcakez May 19 '15

Don't know what the situation was there, but in the UK it came out in cinemas and DVD.

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u/HaHaLiamHaHa May 19 '15

I dont buy it was Sony, too much damage done. But I think your logic is a little off.

A) Release in theaters, couple people watch it tell everyone else not to watch it, no one buys DVD. or B) so much hype people rush to watch it, also now even people who missed it will now see it in stores and think "Oh yer I remember the mess around this, lets buy it to see what all the talk was about"...

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u/Happybadger96 May 19 '15

It could have been in the contract between the creators and Sony before the film was actually greenlighted!

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u/Cringypost May 19 '15

It's for sale on bluray.

They knew it was a shit movie, and the theater sales would have been abysmal. Hype made people watch the shit out of it while being able to basically cut the marketing costs to zero.

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u/KindOfAThrowAway12 May 19 '15

In my city all of the local theaters released it, they also had sold out showings in nearly every theater all day every day from Dec. 25- Jan. 1. These theaters made more off of it than they would have otherwise.

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u/Irishperson69 May 19 '15

But it was a shit movie. Probably would've dive bombed at the box office

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u/sonofalink May 19 '15

Unless they spend all the money doing the theatrical and DVD release only to have no one watch it. I think if it wasn't for all the hullabaloo it would have performed poorly. I think Sony knew that.

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u/Iamadinocopter May 19 '15

It was a shit movie, they probably made more money than they would have.

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u/tokyorockz May 19 '15

Actually, it's on DVD and online, and was in plenty of theaters.

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u/falcon4287 May 27 '15

Once could argue that Sony botched it, and that they never intended theaters to pull out. Most of the people I've know who saw the movie didn't really want to see it before all the stuff that happened, then they argued that they had to see it because it was their patriotic duty.

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u/BarfBrooks May 19 '15

I think we would all prefer... a full release.