Following a backlash against its decision to shelve The Interview in light of an aggressive hacking campaign, Sony is now releasing the film in a select number of willing theaters. One of them, the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers, just put tickets on sale for showings from Christmas through New Year’s Day.
All of the screenings except for the New Year’s Eve one are at midnight: the December 31 showing is at 10:35am.
The odd times are presumably because the theater already had its dance card full when it struck the deal with Sony. When we contacted Sunshine Cinema, where the premiere of the film was canceled in the wake of a vague threat against theaters that played the film, Landmark Theatres’ director of publicity, Lauren Kleiman, told us it had “no plans to play The Interview. Our theatres have been fully booked for months as there is an enormous amount of film already in the marketplace in addition to six new films opening on Christmas Day. It would never occur to us not to honor our existing commitments to our distribution partners during one of the busiest times in the year.”
Nitehawk, the Alamo-esque cinema in Williamsburg, also said it had no plans to screen the film on Christmas.
It remains to be seen which if any New York City theaters will show the film created by “the Western capitalist pigs who brought you NEIGHBORS & THIS IS THE END,” per the description on the Alamo’s website. But if you can make it up to Yonkers, the Drafthouse — with its plush reserved seats and in-theater food and adult-beverage service — is just about the best place you can hope to see it.
Will you be taking your life into your hands? Who knows. For what it’s worth, James Franco didn’t seem concerned about his safety when he showed up at Village East Cinema the other night.
Update, 8:15 p.m.: all tickets for the Christmas Day screening have sold out, aside from handicapped seats. Variety has posted a list of theaters that will be screening the film, none of which are in NYC.
