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Massena, Canton theaters to show controversial 'The Interview' starting on Christmas despite North Korea's objections

Posted 12/23/14

By ANDY GARDNER St. Lawrence County moviegoers will be able to see the controversial political comedy “The Interview” at the Canton American and Massena Movieplex starting Christmas Day. The …

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Massena, Canton theaters to show controversial 'The Interview' starting on Christmas despite North Korea's objections

Posted

By ANDY GARDNER

St. Lawrence County moviegoers will be able to see the controversial political comedy “The Interview” at the Canton American and Massena Movieplex starting Christmas Day.

The movie is a political comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogen about two average Joes recruited by the CIA to travel to North Korea and assassinate Kim Jong-un.

Sony Pictures pulled the movie last week after a group that American intelligence officials believe has connections to North Korea threatened terrorist attacks on theaters screening the film. The hacker group also stole a plethora of information from Sony and made it public, including emails and in come cases, medical records.

On Tuesday, Sony announced that the film would show at independent cinemas, such as J.S., but America’s largest theater chains will not show it.

J.S. Cinemas owner Jeff Szot said he thinks there is no threat to Canton and Massena’s theaters.

“I’m confident with it. I think we’ll be fine,” he said, adding that he would not show the film if he believed it would put customers in danger.

He said the film won’t open Christmas Day at the Potsdam Roxy theater because they have a lineup of all new films.

“Potsdam’s got five solid movies,” he said.

Szot said he thinks the movie will probably do much better at the box office because of the massive national media attention over the last week.

“Without all this hype, it would’ve done so-so. It would just be another movie out there,” he said. “There seems to be a great interest in wanting to see it now.”

He said he is hearing quite a bit from customers who want to see the film.

In his time as a theater owner, Szot said controversy of the degree that surrounds “The Interview” is rare. He said the last time he could remember such hype was around 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ,” a graphic depiction of the last days of Jesus.

“There was a little bit of excitement … in the larger markets, they had protests,” he said.