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The Interview hits $40 million in digital sales, but they're slowing down

The Interview hits $40 million in digital sales, but they're slowing down

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The Interview has now brought in more than $40 million in digital sales, representing over 5.8 million purchases and rentals during the nearly one month since its release, according to Variety. Though The Interview is still performing well digitally, its sales are clearly tapering off. The film took in over $30 million during its first two weeks, meaning these last two weeks represent a huge dip. Nonetheless, Sony seems to be happy with it. "We always said that we would get the movie to the greatest audience possible," Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton says in a statement. "Achieving over $40 million in digital sales is a significant milestone."

"Achieving over $40 million in digital sales is a significant milestone."

Lynton's right, even if it isn't going to make The Interview hugely profitable. The Interview is easily the highest profile film to ever receive a simultaneous release on-demand and in theaters, and it's likely going to be the highest profile film to do so for a while. The results are encouraging — clearly a film can find success through an immediate VOD release — but they're hardly good enough to convince studios to start eschewing theatrical windows altogether. Plus, The Interview unintentionally received a global marketing push that it's going to be impossible for any other studio to recreate.

The Interview has also taken in around $6 million through its limited theatrical release, which means that the film has likely now broken even on its reported $44 million production budget. Still, Variety reports that Sony spent around $75 million in total on the movie once you factor in marketing and other costs, so there's still a large amount of money that it'll take a while for The Interview to account for. Sony is now quickly bringing The Interview to DVD and Blu-ray, which should let the studio tap into home video sales while the film is still somewhat fresh off of its eventful release. The film is unlikely to ever do as well as it would have with a traditional release in theaters, but even with declining digital sales, it's clear that Sony has come far from a total loss.