The Interview Loss by John Young
Sony. One of the most successful companies in the world has faced a great loss of money. After making a comedy called “The Interview”, cyber-terrorists hacked Sony’s large corporation. Supposedly these attacks were caused by North Korea since the movie kills of the leader of North Korea. Either way, theaters were afraid of these attacks so Sony wasn’t able to make a profit off of this movie. In fact, Sony has lost over 75 million dollars due to lack of production of sales since the movie wasn’t played in theaters. If Sony’s company wasn’t successful in its other products like FIFA, then the production possibilities curve would’ve decreased a lot farther than it did.
But it wasn’t a total loss for Sony. Due to Supply and Demand, Sony was able to make money off of online purchases that customers made. It was recorded that Sony made a total of 15 million dollars. Unfortunately that doesn’t even cover the price of advertising of the movie. The fact that Sony didn’t make money was due to pirating. Since people didn’t want to pay for the movie but wanted to watch it, they pirated the movie. This decision while it was illegal, was the best tradeoff decision. The only factor that these people were losing was time that they spent to find the movie download.
Not only did this affect Sony but this incident also affects other companies as well. All of the online sources that are choosing to sell this movie run the risk of getting hacked. Then their company would lose money as well. Also the theaters lose the opportunity of gaining money. Some of the most successful movies make over 3.2 billion dollars in grossing. The fact that Sony is losing 75 million dollars doesn’t even compare to the amount of money that the movie theaters lost after rejecting the movie. The large companies like Marcus Majestic Movie Theaters rely on great selling movies but their company could run into the ground if situations like this happen more frequently. Deficits like these incidents make the economy take a step back.
Free Market economies can and are very successful. The freedom of what to sell and what to make gives the consumer purchase a chance to expand. But there also are trade-offs into having a free market system. Since Sony has the freedom of making the movie “The Interview”, they were able to give their story of how two people interview the leader of North Korea and kill him off. The biggest trade-off that Sony had to deal with was fear. Fear was created the second after they got hacked. This fear spread into other companies like the majestic movie theaters. After they made the choice of not playing the movie made the fear trickle down to the average consumer. At this point the average consumer would have the fear of getting hacked as well so then they won’t buy the movie. Overall the movie “The interview” has taken a hit into America’s economy.
Sources:
- Lang, Brett. "Sony Could Lose $75 Million on 'The Interview' (EXCLUSIVE)." Variety. 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 8 Feb. 2015. <http://variety.com/2014/film/news/sony-could-lose-75-million-on-the-interview-exclusive-1201382506/>.
- "100,000 Copies of The Interview Will Be Dropped into North Korea Using Balloons."Consequence of Sound. 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/01/100000-copies-of-the-interview-will-be-dropped-into-north-korea-using-balloons/>.
I completely agree that the loss of producing and showing movies is a great cost to corporations but corporations are logical and profit seeking so they must have identified the cost as being more than the benefit and therefore profit in order to not have mass showings of the movie.
ReplyDeleteWow, I didn't even realize that The Interview lost that much money due to the theaters' fear of getting hacked. Also, pirating is getting more common over the internet, so I can see how they aren't making much money over this great movie.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that so many people were pirating the movie, it's almost impossible for Sony to be able to find those who downloaded the movie illegally.
DeleteThe topic you chose to talk about is very interesting and relevant to today as the movie was premiered not very long ago. I am just a bit confused on your use of the production possibilities curve, because the curve wouldn’t change, only the point at which Sony is working at, what I’m saying is that they still have the resources and the products being made but the demand for specific products will be decreased so the resources would not be used at the most efficient point. I like how you brought the topic of piracy, as there is millions of dollars lost every year because of illegal downloading of music and videos, and this affects not only major companies like Sony but also movie theaters and packaging of the material.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen the movie, but I have heard that many people also have not seen the movie. If Sony hadn’t been hacked, I think more people would have gone to see the movie because there was not that fear factor to their decision. Losing that much money so unexpectedly can greatly affect a corporation like Sony, but in a situation where other business are dependent on certain things (like the movie business and theaters), it is clear that many people will feel the effects of this loss.
ReplyDeleteThat was such a big loss from Sony, they had no choice but to accepting the pirating from the online edition of their production. I feel Sony shouldn’t have helped make a movie like this, it had to expected that there was going to be foreign conflict, especially from a country with a dictator. I think its really interesting to see that it takes over 15 million dollars just to advertise a movie, even one with big stars in it. It is almost disturbing to think of how much money other companies and movie theaters were losing for not showing a movie!
ReplyDeleteI thought that this topic was very interesting, even though Sony lost a tone of money and the movie theaters even more, the movie was fictional and I think that North Korea went a little too far. The movie was only fro entertainment and I don't think that North Korea needed the hack Sony. However after the attack I think that it was logical for movie theaters not to display "The Interview" because it could have costed them even more. The opportunity cost of displaying the movie in the theaters was too risky so the theaters had to take a hit financially and not display the movie. I thought that this was a interesting topic because this movie it watched online often.
ReplyDeleteI like how you connected the production possibility curve to the movie and how it would've been different if the movie had been released in theaters. You talked about how Sony had created Fifa and that was a big hit, and if they had released the Interview then they could've been making a lot more money. Since the movie theaters didn't get to release the movie they lost out on a lot of money. The trade off was that the movie theaters didn't get any profit from the movie because it wasn't released so they had to play a different movie instead of the Interview.
ReplyDeleteThe Interview movie was a really great option to write about. There’s been a lot of debate about it lately, and I didn't realize the extent of the impact it had on Sony. It’s true that free market economies have the right to choose what they produce and consume, so because of this, producers have to be smart about what they’re choosing to produce. Making a movie like this was bound to generate a lot of backlash, and it makes sense that consumers would be scared to see it after all of it. I wasn't aware that piracy was such a big issue with this movie, though! It’s like consumers are scared to see it, but they will if they don’t have to pay for it. Sony made a great movie, but it’s not going to see the economic benefits of it.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know much about this topic so it was very interesting to read about. I agree that a free market has a trade off but doesn't every decision we make have one? I believe that even though Sony couldn't produce the movie it really wont hurt them or other businesses in the long run. They chose to take a chance and I think they learned their lesson. Also, I think it's bold to say the whole American economy took a hit. Other movie maker competitors probably had an increase in revenue because everyone wasn't busy seeing The Interview. Even the online sources that were streaming the movie most likely gained more money because of people's willingness to buy the movie illegally.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this situation has had a negative overall effect on the economy and national GDP level, but you could also say it had some positive benefits. This kind of occurrence could potentially have a positive impact on consumers as they do not have to actually pay for movies and possibly the black market where this movie could have been sold for a lower overall cost. Although this does cause a decrease in the production possibility curve, I do agree that the impact it does have on Sony is minute as Sony is a multi-billion dollar company.
ReplyDeleteI would have thought that Sony would have made more money despite the problems. I thought that the movie would have made more money because of all of the free publicity it was getting in the news. I was surprised that Sony pulled the movie from theaters, I would have thought that they would have wanted to capitalize on the free publicity they were receiving from the news, but I suppose the burden of a possible terrorist attack could have been worse.
ReplyDeleteThe movie did gain publicity off of the attack which maybe was the reason on why they made money off of online purchases.
DeleteAlthough Sony did not make the money that was put into the movie back, they still made some money off of Google Play and iTunes selling a twenty four hour rental of the movie for $5.99. Many people, such as myself took advantage of this and rented the movie on their phones, computers, ipads and tablets. It's still a shame that Korea had to be salty about the movie though.
ReplyDeleteIn the end Sony didn't lost as much money as projected in your article. With in one week of it's release it had about 35$ received in income. Now, they are still operating on a loss, but it pointed out how sony still isn't a stable company. Their PSN networks got hacked in 2011 and it took them 3 years to fix that issue. The US didn't really see a blip on it's radar. Sony did, but it wasn't a terrible loss. People still bought and watched the movie. Our economy would barely notice.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting topic to write about. I have heard a lot about this movie in other classes as well because it is very controversial. Was the demand for this movie very high or was it low? I think if this movie was in the theaters, they could have gained a lot more profit. Although this is a very different movie, many people could go see it, just like they are buying it online. This will in fact have a negative effect on the national GDP level. However, this is a bad impact on the company and they should have thought of that before producing.
ReplyDeleteThis post does excellent in using vocab and connecting it to your choice of topic. You also excellently analyse the effect on the economy. I really have nothing to argue or suggest in the face of this piece besides saying good job!
ReplyDeleteThanks dude I agree.
DeleteIt is great to know that this has happened to Sony. I believe that North Korea hacked Sony due to the accuracy of the film and it would have been nice to see more information on the fact that North Korea took the effort to hack them rather than only reading about how much Sony lost from the film.
ReplyDeleteThis piece shows the exchange of intangible goods and services. i wouldn't have necessarily thought of fear as a part of a trade off, but it makes sense. This also relates well to the production possibilities curve. These recent events could be considered unexpected disasters that cause the decreasing of the curve.
ReplyDeleteThis was indeed an interesting topic. It was a money loss for sure, but a company like Sony will recoup those costs quite quickly and I doubt that they are having any financial hardships due to their losses. With it now also being on Netflix, along with the other online sales will help Sony recoup some of it's money. This also brings some positive notion to Sony, as they allowed it to be purchased online (after pulling it, of course).
ReplyDeleteThey definitely have other sources that they can get their money back from like their products from the ps4.
DeleteWow, that's shocking how much profit they lost because they weren't able to release it into theaters. I don't see how the entire economy of America took a hit because I'm sure because of the fact that Sony didn't make much, people were giving their money to other producers. I haven't seen the movie, but I've heard it's pretty good and funny too. I saw a couple weeks ago that it was just released on Netflix. I remember when the news came out that this movie wasn't going to come out because there were threats made from North Korea if we went through with it. A lot of people were disappointed, so I'm sure it's a big hit on Netflix now. Interesting topic to write about though, good job.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen the movie but remember wanting to go see it in theaters before Sony made the decision to not release it. I agree with the situation that Sony did lose millions of dollars due to not releasing it but the safety of people is ultimately more important. If this would happen repeatedly Sony could potentially suffer even greater loses which may cause this corporation to shutdown, although this seems highly unlikely. In the end, even though people made online purchases of the movie these numbers did not cover the millions lost from advertising but, since Sony is such a huge, widely known, and wealthy corporation the money lost was so little as to how much money Sony still holds.
ReplyDeleteHaving The Interview's screenings removed from the theaters definitely put Sony in a loss, but when first announced they had no future plans for the films release. Now, the movie was being screened at few local cinemas and had a full VOD release, including contracts from services such as Netflix. So although Sony did lose out on a lot of potential profit from a full nationwide theater release; they didn't lose out completely as they're still making money off of the movie. Also with the controversy around the film, it may even cause more people to want to at least rent it, if not buy the movie. So it could be seen as a blessing in disguise.
ReplyDeleteWhile I never watched the movie, I have friends who say it is hilarious. I understand why they did not play the movie just because of other terrorist attacks we already are dealing with, we don't really want to cause anymore hatred towards America. This also brings up the question, what is ok to write about in a movie or article and what is not? If Sony had thought about the possible hatred they could receive for killing another countries leader in their movie, they might have created something a little different. Overall, it's good that Sony has had a lot of success in the past, because if they did not this movie could have caused the company to become bankrupt.
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ReplyDeleteI like the topic you chose. The Interview was actually a pretty good movie since I've happened to see it. If the movie did make it to theaters I know it would of produced a lot of money. It's sad that Sony has to take such a hit because of this movie and it is especially sad that North Korea hacked them as well. However, the movie isn't a total bust because they provide the movie on Netflix and on demand as well as other movie sources. Nice job on this piece!
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a good topic to write about since everyone knows about this movie and the controversy of the hacking and the offensive nature of it. I didn't realize that Sony lost so much money off of this movie and that it was pirated so much. Obviously, due to the fact it was released online that was bound to happen but I didn't know the extent of the money lost because it wasn't released in theaters. Also, I liked how you added the part about the Free Market and the fear that was brought on by this movie from the hackers.
ReplyDeleteI think that speaks to the relevance of the internet in today’s economy that people can fulfill their unlimited wants, so that even if a country like North Korea tries to stop the sale of a product, it can still be purchased through another medium. This wouldn’t have been possible even ten years ago, so the increase in technology causes economic growth.
ReplyDeleteI would have never thought to use a movie as an economic blog post, but it makes a lot of sense. With supply and demand there isn't now a very high demand for this movie due to the fact that companies are afraid of getting hacked. So they have the supply of the movies but very little demand. Since America is a Free - Market economy it means that companies have the right to refused to sell this movie because Economic freedom gives them the choice of producing and selling products that, that company wants to make. Therefore Sony has had it rough because their product did strike fear into other companies purchasing it, and since other companies can choose to buy the product or not. Sony is down a lot of money that could have been used to make more movies.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the movie "The Interview" was a major upset to Sony and America as a whole. It was probably one of the first movie issues this big to be publicized and in the limelight. While Sony did suffer a major loss of money, they are a very successful company and will be able to make that up some time. Besides the movie industry and America, I wonder how it affected the actors of the movie personally? That would be interesting to know. It seems that this problem affected economic security the most because now movie companies will be extra sure that their systems are safe and protected to avoid any future similar issues.
ReplyDeleteI knew Sony lost money, but 75 million dollars is a much larger loss than I thought, and probably than they anticipated as well. It’s nice to see that they've made up at least some of that money now that Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube are all carrying the movie. You bring up a good point about the issue of movie pirating and the costs people balance while deciding whether to watch legally or illegally. Generally people assume that the time they spend finding a pirated movie is well justified because it is free, but they do not consider the loss they are costing the company. The Interview didn't do well in the box office, so it needed those online sales to boost its income, but people pirated and all of the money they could have made is gone. It seems like Sony should have weighed their options more carefully when deciding whether or not to make the movie, but it seems they made the wrong call and it cost them a great deal.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t realize that Sony lost that much money. Although for them 75 million may not be as tragic as other companies, however the lost is still significant. Also I find it quite amazing how much was done to stop the movie and it still got released on certain websites or applications. It shows us how many opportunities there are in the U.S. from a technological stand point.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I never really took into consideration how much money that sony lost by not having this movie in theaters, I just sort of brushed it off because it didn't directly affect me. After reading this blog post though I would have never guessed that they lost 75 million dollars on the movie, that is a ton of money. I thought that sense it was still being watched by millions of people through online sources such as netflix and amazon it would at least make some money, which it did however no where near where it needed to, to at least break even. You brought up a good point on how they were losing even more money do to pirating, because people regardless of the risk still want to see the movie. Overall I think that you had a really unique topic that I never really thought would effect the economy, but obviously it does.
ReplyDeleteI’m surprised to hear the incredible loss Sony faced with producing this movie. I am also surprised to hear that Sony produced the movie. They knew that there was a risk involved in it and went away with the decision anyways and in the end it backfired. I would still recommend watching it. It’s fairly funny.
ReplyDeleteLike many, I didn't know that it was that significant of a loss for Sony, I couldn't believe that they lost over 75 million dollars when you had said that. But I think that was the opportunity cost of making the movie, they knew that it was controversial so they had the ability to stop the production and save money but they didn't. I believe that this also show the laissez faire approach and more of a free market economy that our society has. Many governments that were more involved wouldn't have allowed someone to produce a movie like this. But the type of government and economy that we have doesn't prevent us from doing so. This movie also created a few negative externalities as the hackers released information about the Sony company, that many did not want to see happen.
ReplyDeleteThat is a crazy amount of money Sony lost by being hacked. Not only did Sony's company have to deal with the lose but so did the movie theater. I never really thought about how much money they lost out on as well. Was there a way that Sony could have had better protection and not have been hacked? Or is this something that they just have to except. However, Sony did all it could my putting it online.
ReplyDeleteThe real problem at hand hear is the fact that other countries have influence on our free market. We should not fall into false threats and instead continue to stimulate our own economy and let countries get mad if they want to. 75 billion dollars is a major loss and definitely does not do any good for our economy but it is the least of our worries.
ReplyDeleteI will start by saying that this is an awesome topic that you chose. I think that it is very relatable with us. I wasn't really aware of the effect that it had on sony however. I would actually think that Sony would make more money with this movie because it was so controversial. It is interesting how much money they lost due to this movie, and it makes sense because of the fact that it wasn't released in theaters. I also like the fact that this movie is a great example of a free market economy. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a interesting topic. I read something that said that Sony made more money from the online sales than they ever had before. The pirating is nothing new tho.
ReplyDeleteIt's really a shock on how much money was lost due to this, and how much of a effect other countries had apon Sony. The lost of 75 million dollars that was passable created due to another countries opinion.
ReplyDeleteSony lost so much from the Movie, the interview. Our free market was affected by North Korea. It is scary to think that violent threats could stop the freedom that we have in America. Not only did this affect Sony, but also money flow from movie theaters across the nation. Being on the internet Sony lost even more through pirating the movie. The real question is how will Sony make the money back or even break even?
ReplyDeleteMillions of people pirate movies every year. You were right in saying that that was the best trade-off. If you think about it people will not have to waste the gas and the $50 bucks to take their families to movies. I'm surprised they movie lost that much money. Considering it was not released in theaters and stirred up plenty of controversy I'm surprised that the demand was not higher. But like you said since it was only released online, you had those who downloaded it illegally which is where the loss of profit can be blamed.
ReplyDeleteI watched the Interview almost as soon as it came out online, unfortunately I paid for the movie and did not realize that it was on Netflix. Although this movie wasn't able to be shown in theaters, I believe it was good it wasn't shown. Bluffing or not North Korea was threatening the US if the movie were to be released. I would rather have Sony take a hit like this than having to live in fear of North Korea's threats.
ReplyDeleteThis topic was very interesting and does a great job of taking something that is pop culture and viewing from an economic standpoint. 75 million dollars is a huge loss for Sony as well as for the movie theaters that you mentioned who also lost quite a bit of money. You did a great job of relating these losses to economics as you pointed out the shift inward in the production possibilities curve due to the loss of money. Sony knew of the tradeoffs that would be coming when they started the production of a comedic movie about North Korea but I don’t think they realized just how big of an impact it would have on their company.
ReplyDeleteThe ever growing dangers of technology have been made ever more apparent with the threats made against Sony on releasing this film. These individuals threatened to physically harm employees at Sony's production studios, simply because they disliked the way specific material was being presented in the film and if these threats and security breaches continue we can expect major freedoms which we once has on the internet to be severally altered, and/or even made overly complicated. This group didn't have to bring threats of violence into this situation, as violence is never a proper answer. These individuals could have found a safer solution to this problem instead of endangering the security and safety of employees at this company.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the movie was good wouldn't it make sense for sony to look into if they would make a profit off of the movie. And wouldn't there be other ways that sony could make a profit from the movie like selling it digitally on web sites that would sell or rent movies or just put it in red box right away. I feel like it is partially sonys fault that they lost money because they could have done something differently to market it.
ReplyDeleteI was aware that sony had lost some money, but 75 million dollars is much more than what I thought. Although Sony knew they would probably lose some money, I don’t think they anticipated to lose that much money.It’s good that they made up some of the money by posting the movie to places such as Netflix and Youtube. Along with Sony losing money, I never considered the fact that other places such as movie theaters would lose money.
ReplyDeleteI think the movie should have never been pulled. However I understand why Sony did what they did, they would rather lose money then have their name associated with a terrorist attack. Even the president said that he wishes that Sony would have continued with its scheduled release date.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I thought that this post was only going to focus on Sony's losses in producing the film, but to tie in the effects of piracy further drove the argument. Your post had good information, and you presented it logically. Also, you integrated our economic terms from class very effectively.One thing I believe could have made your post better would have been to include information on the financial losses of pirated films, and potentially go further in depth into the effects of piracy.
ReplyDeleteI heard that the interview was doing good despite the fact the it didn't air in many theaters. I guess that changed, now knowing how much they lost sucks because whoever the hackers were they were successful. The cut down the number of people who actually saw the movie. Also I knew with it being released on the internet the number of people who pirate it would increase but, I never realized how big of an impact it would have. I know a lot of people including my family saw the movie and if that many saw the movie that means a good majority had to have pirated or found other ways of watching with out purchasing it.
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