"The Interview": Sony's Most Downloaded Film Grosses More Than $15 Million

Sony's controversial comedy "The Interview" grosses more than $15 million within just four days of its release online. It is now the film studio's most downloaded film ever.

A Sony press release said that about 2 million customers spent $15 million to download or watch the movie online. In addition, the movie has bagged $2.8 million playing in 331 movie theaters through Sunday, writes Venture Beat.

"That is a huge number," said Jeff Bock, a box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, according to Channel 24.

"This is almost what it was going to do theatrically before it was pulled. It made about what people expected, but in a completely different way."

The film, which stars James Franco and Seth Rogen, is about a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

It had been previously pulled from cinemas following the massive cyber attack on the studio launched by a group of hackers believed to be from North Korea.

Following widespread criticism that Sony was caving to the terrorists, the company decided to release the film online for a fee via YouTube Movies, Google Play, Xbox Video and Sony's own site -- but only in the USA and Canada, writes Mirror.

The film, which was released on 24 December, can be rented for 48 hours for $5.99 or bought for $14.99. It has also been made available to iTunes users.

Of course, pirated version of the film has also become widely popular, with about 1.5 million downloading the movie via torrent.

Sony executive Amy Pascal has revealed that she hopes the success of "The Interview" will be enough to keep her job in the wake of the hacking scandal, which caused personal information of Sony employees and film stars to be leaked online, according to Business Standard.