Jan. 01--"The Interview" is coming to Dish Network's video-on-demand service on Friday, making it the latest and last of the major pay television services to carry the controversial Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy.
Dish announced the deal on Thursday. It will rent the film for $5.99.
On Wednesday, Sony Pictures announced the film would be available on outlets such as Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable. It also became available on VOD and pay-per-view services of Charter Communications, Cablevision, AT U-verse TV, Verizon's FiOS and DirecTV.
Altogether the film will now be available in 80 million homes. That's in addition to the expansion of the film's theatrical release, which will add about 200 more theaters on Friday, bringing it to 580 locations, mostly independent movie houses.
The continued rollout of the comedy about the fictionalized assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un comes on the heels of the studio's scuttled wide release plans for Christmas Day. But Sony changed course on Dec. 17, when hackers who had exposed sensitive internal information about the studio threatened violence against theater-goers. All of the major cinema chains then dropped plans to show the movie.
But after much criticism, including from President Obama, the studio reversed course and announced the film would be made available in a few theaters and on some streaming platforms, including XBox Live, PlayStation Network and YouTube.
As of Thursday, the film, which cost $44 million to make, had grossed $3.5 million in theaters and more than $15 million in online rentals.
