PD Editorial: Sony gets taken to the woodshed

History shows that Hollywood has never been shy about ruffling foreign feathers in the name of big box office receipts.

Even now, Japanese officials are said to be displeased with the soon-to-be-released “Unbroken,” a film based on the Laura Hillenbrand nonfiction bestseller about Olympian Louis Zamperini who was tortured by Japanese soldiers as a World War II prisoner.

But don’t expect those concerns to stand in the way of the film’s release on Christmas Day.

Movie studios also are no stranger to domestic pressure to block the release of controversial films. Examples include Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” a documentary critical of President George W. Bush that Disney initially blocked from distribution, and “Hillary: The Movie,” a film by the conservative group Citizens United, which produced a regrettable Supreme Court decision by the same name.

But in most cases, the show always went on - until this week.

Subject to a costly and embarrassing cyberattack by a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace - and threatened with terrorist attacks if the film was shown - Sony Pictures killed the release of “The Interview,” a comedy about a fictional assassination plot against North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Sony’s decision has triggered widespread blowback from those who claim the studio is kowtowing to hackers, who, as federal authorities have confirmed, are somewhere inside North Korea. At a news conference Friday, President Barack Obama joined the parade of critics, saying Sony made a “mistake” in pulling the film and that he wishes “they had spoken to me first.”

“I would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you’re intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks,” Obama said. “We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States,” he added.

True enough. But Sony could hardly be expected to carry the torch of First Amendment freedoms alone on this one. Sony’s decision was based far more on its concern for dollars and cents than the stars and stripes.

Because of the threats of 9/11-like attacks on theaters that showed the film, many theater chains had already said they had no plans to show the movie anyway. Theaters were more concerned about film-goers staying away during the busy Christmas holiday, avoiding far bigger money-making films such as “The Hobbit 3.”

Meanwhile, the controversy has already bolstered demand to see the movie either in pirated form or, if Sony relents, in its release in theaters, on DVD or video on demand.

It’s unlikely that, in the long run, Sony is going to take a total loss on the $75 million invested in this film. History has shown that’s not how Hollywood works.

Meanwhile, it’s not likely that this is going to be setting of a precedent in which despotic leaders or terrorists from some other country determine what is said, written or screened in the United States. It’s now how this country works.