James Franco and Seth Rogen in ‘The Interview.’ (Columbia Pictures)

What a difference a week makes. What started as an ordinary, run-of-the-mill case of a hostile foreign dictatorship possibly orchestrating the illegal actions of an anonymous cabal of cyberterrorists in an effort to punish a multinational entertainment conglomerate for financing a holiday movie that would humiliate the ruler of that foreign land, has turned into a case study for the viability of old-school distribution channels in New Hollywood.

Oh, and tomorrow is Christmas. If you’re stuck for a last-minute gift idea, may I recommend a digital gift certificate to YouTube, Google Play or Xbox Video?

Those are the online channels from which filmgoers – also known, this week only, as superpatriots – can stream or buy a copy of The Interview, the mainstream Hollywood comedy that until a week ago was set to debut tomorrow afternoon at a theater near you. A lot has happened in that week, of course (see here for a recap), and now if you’re living in western or central New York state, “near you” means a drive to Canandaigua’s Movietime Cinemas 10 or MoviePlex 10 in Auburn. The rest of our area’s theater chains have been shut out of the exhibition pathway – temporarily, at least. But I expect seats at those two theaters will sell out quickly; and anyway, the prime audience for The Interview will likely be inclined to stay home and watch the film, completely legally, from the comfort of their own homes.

The specific circumstances behind this particular film’s release path are extraordinary, but the ramifications are merely waiting to be discovered – and, in all likelihood, applied. A fair amount of Internet commenters are speculating, reasonably, as to whether Sony is making lemonade out of lemons or had this planned all along. I’m inclined to think the former, but that doesn’t mean their bean counters won’t be paying close attention to the financial outcome of this adventure. If the Seth Rogen/James Franco vehicle is able to make a profit from a first-run distribution path that focuses primarily on the Internet, what will that mean for theaters? Nothing good, I expect.

Stay tuned – and Merry Christmas!