Fake a threat, pretend to withdraw the film, wait for public uproar, release on a pay per view platform to massive sales.
Before the story broke I didn't know anything about this film.
Real case of cyberwar? Or PR master stroke?
You really think Sony would fake a "9/11 style" threat against movie theaters, in today's world?
The only plausible "publicity stunt" scenario is that after the real hacking, the real threats, the real refusal of theaters to show the movie, that Sony pretended they wouldn't even release it online in order to drum up online sales when they finally changed course.
On the other hand, I still can't imagine they would be dumb enough to fake this, considering they opened an FBI investigation and there were threats of physical violence. The risk to reward just doesn't make any sense.
There's a possibility that showing The Interview on YouTube and other sites will result in online streaming becoming a huge runaway revenue success. But that's a huge gamble to make, especially when the movie is scoring just a 54% on Rotten Tomatoes.
No, I don't think it was a publicity stunt.
Let's not forget that a terrorist threat against your customers (theaters / viewers) is really bad for business. So, let's say one of the places playing the show suffers an attack by some crazy. Sony is going to be on the hook in a big way. US courts[1] are known to pay out some huge settlements[2].
So, a loser in so many ways with no upside for profit.
1) http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/new-lawsuit-claims-...
2) Despite politicians and other calling them "cowards" you would have to be insane to release a film suffering such a terroristic threat. If the politicians believe we shouldn't buckle then they should pass some tort reform.
From this perspective, terror really works very well.
The hack was in all likelihood real, (but probably not North Korean). Sony made the best of a bad situation.