When you think of events that later lead to the start of major world wars, what do you think of? The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Germanic invasion of Poland, a satirical Seth Rogen comedy full of humor even a 14 year-old would find immature? The latter of the three was almost the case this past December during the controversy that was the release of the The Interview.

Controversy surrounding the film started late last year when the hacker group, self named “The Guardians of Peace”, successfully bypassed Sony’s firewalls, leaking future movie projects planned by the studio and employee salaries to the public. These hacker “terrorists” then threatened to blow up any movie theaters planning to show the The Interview on it’s December 25th release date. Sony, feeling that there hands were tied, decided to completely cancel the theatrical release of the movie.

After this development surfaced, people became engrossed in the drama and sides were drawn. One side argued that Sony’s decision to pull the movie violated freedom of speech and their personal liberties. The other side argued just the opposite, that Sony had no choice but to consider the threats real and deadly serious and that it would be both dangerous and stupid to allow theaters across the nation to take a risk like that. Soon after President Obama weighed in on the issue, saying that,”Sony is a corporation. It suffered significant damage. There were threats against its employees. I’m sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. Having said all that, yes I think they made a mistake.”

Personally, I feel that Sony may have been a bit rash in their decision. Had they waited and realized what the blowback for such a decision would be, especially with Obama against them, Sony could have very easily avoided this whole scandal. The White House guaranteed that any terrorist attack on US soil was a statistical impossibility. With the confidence of the Commander in Chief behind them, Sony would have been able to release the movie normally and blame anything that went wrong on the government.

After facing so much criticism and ridicule over the whole debate, Sony decided to do the first smart thing all month. The Interview was released on December 24th to many different online retailers including Amazon Prime, iTunes, and Google Play. Considering the conditions of this situation, Sony made the best decision they could by releasing the movie to the digital storefront. The “opening week” for The Interview set online sales precedents as the movie made over thirty million dollars. Despite the egregious error, the flick was able to make back its budget.

As far as movies go, The Interview is an average, raunchy Seth Rogen comedy full of wiener jokes and toilet humor. Truly this movie will be remembered for its controversy rather than its actual content.