man... for a while I was pretty convinced most of this was viral marketing. Not the Sony hack itself, mind you... but when it first came out that North Korea felt the movie was an act of terrorism, my first instinct was, "Well... even if that's true, I'm sure the studio is eating this up and getting their press contacts to run this story. It's HUGE marketing for the movie".
Then when the Sony hack happened (has it been confirmed that Korea was involved?) and stories came out that it was the North Koreans retaliating against the movie, my instinct was to think, "Well... way to turn a bad situation into a positive. Might as well make the most of these hacks and pretend like it's angry North Korea... that way they can at least get some huge press for this movie. Very smart viral marketing".
Then when it came out that Rogan and Franco were cancelling all their media appearances, my instinct was to think, "Hah... clever. They don't need to even make media appearances at this point. The act of cancelling will be such a big story that it will generate even more hype for the film. Really smart. Pretend like they are getting death threats... get people super interested in the movie. Genius viral marketing!"
Then when it came out they were cancelling in response to threats made by North Korea to "9/11" theaters showing it... umm... ok... yeah... that's probably not viral marketing. Even if the general public realizes it's unlikely that North Korea is going to bomb movies... umm... people are going to avoid going.
Then when it came out that theaters are dropping the movie. Wow.... Not viral marketing. This is crazy.