Before the year’s most talked-about movie “The Interview” came out, the critics had given it a mixed reception. Then came the Sony hack threats against any cinema that showed it, and its withdrawal. It looked likely it would lose Sony its 80 million dollar production and marketing budget.

However since Sony backtracked and released it as video on demand on the web on Christmas Eve it has taken 15 million on the internet alone, and the 300 cinemas of its restricted release have been sold out.