Imo this crisis was handled pretty badly by Sony and the us government: if Sony had ridden the wave of publicity after the hack, and if the government had promised to aid the threatened theaters, then it probably would have been a smash hit (Streisand effect). Instead they rewarded NK by pulling the release, showing that blackmail and threats work, and also ensuring that from then on there would be more self censorship concerning authoritarian states.

From an article at the time,

President Obama says Sony Pictures Entertainment made a "mistake" in canceling its planned release of the movie "The Interview" following a destructive cyber attack the U.S. government says was launched by North Korea. "Sony is a corporation. It suffered significant damage. There were threats against its employees. I’m sympathetic to the concerns that they faced," Obama said. "Having said all that, yes I think they made a mistake." "We cannot have a society in which some dictator in some place can start imposing censorship in the United States," Obama said.

Sure, you can't make a film about the assassination of the leader of a given country and expect that country to not have an opinion of the film. That being said, North Korea definitely overreacted to the film.

(As a brief aside, I would like to bring up the 2006 film, "Death of a President" which is a fake documentary following the assassination of George W Bush. The reception was a few words of condemnation from US politicians, but otherwise ignoring it.)

Cancelling the wide release was probably a mistake, but Sony chose the safest option for the company, especially a company that has just had their dirty laundry shared with the world.

As CEO the film absolutely cost the studio money. So from that standpoint, it was a mistake.

But morally? It was a silly comedy. We should absolutely support these types of films being made and released. You don't need to greenlight them, but if you do, stand behind them.

Jesus, this headline is horribly deceptive.

When you regret a thing without any further qualifiers, it means you regret the creation or execution of that thing.