Durham movie-goers line up for 'The Interview'

At Northgate Stadium 10 Theater in Durham, dozens lined up for a ticket.

“You know, if it weren’t for the fact that North Korea raised hell, there wouldn’t even be a line. No one would even see it,” said Alastair Browne as he waited to get into the show.

The plot centers around the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Sony originally pulled the movie because of online threats of violence, then decided to release it.

“It got really bad reviews, and I kind of wanted to see why it almost starts World War III,” Northgate movie-goer Sarah Jarvis said.

Some came to support the idea of free speech.

“It’s funny art, “ Cooper Anderson said. “It’s supposed to be a comedy, and I’m not a big fan of stifling any of that. So, I always say, ‘Show it and have fun with it.’”

At Northgate, no extra security precautions were taken, and customers didn’t seem worried about the hackers’ threats.

“The only thing they did was made it popular,” Browne said. “If they had ignored it completely, the movie would have fizzled out and been forgotten about.”