Sony Reacts to Obama's Statement on 'The Interview' Cancellation: 'We Had No Choice'
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Reacting to President Obama's statement, the studio says the decision 'was made as a result of the majority of the nation's theater owners choosing not to screen the film.'

AceShowbiz - President Obama criticized Sony Pictures Entertainment's decision to pull "The Interview" from theaters on Friday, December 19 and now the studio has released a statement responding to the statement. Sony defended their decision to scrap the release, blaming theaters which refused to screen the comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogen.

"The decision not to move forward with the December 25 theatrical release of 'The Interview' was made as a result of the majority of the nation's theater owners choosing not to screen the film," they said. "This was their decision." The studio also said, "Without theaters, we could not release it in the theaters on Christmas Day. We had no choice."

President Obama previously said in a press conference that Sony scrapping the release was "a mistake." He added, "I wish they had spoken to me first. We cannot have a society in which some dictatorship someplace can start imposing censorship."

In a separate interview on Friday, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton denied that his camp did not consult the White House before pulling the plug on the release. "The President, the press and the public are mistaken about what happened," he told CNN.

A group who calls themselves Guardians of Peace claimed responsibility in massive cyber attack targeting Sony on November 24. A handful of unreleased movies, sensitive info about former and current employees as well as emails from executives' inbox, including Lynton's, leaked online following the hacking. They later threatened a 9/11-style attack on theaters which screen the movie.

This week, the company was slapped with three lawsuits over the data leak and now a fourth class-action lawsuit has been filed. According to TheWrap, two former IT employees named Michael Levine and Lionel Felix filed the suit at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The two claimed Sony should have been more prepared for cyber-attack. "Defendant has failed to take reasonable steps to secure the data of its employees from hacking and other collateral attacks despite its having a duty to safeguard its employees' data," the document read. "Only three years ago, Defendant incurred one of the largest data breaches in history, in which 77 million customer records were compromised."

They're suing Sony for negligence and invasion of privacy among others, and seeking "an award of appropriate relief, including actual damages, restitution, disgorgement, and statutory damages."

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