The Interview was pirated more than 750,000 times in its first day of release

Despite its availability across multiple online platforms, Sony's buddy assassination comedy The Interview was downloaded illegally more than 750,000 times in the first 20 hours after its release, reports TorrentFreak.

Sony Pictures canceled the theatrical release of The Interview on Dec. 17 amid threats of a terrorist attack on theaters that showed the film, a decision which president Obama said disappointed him. On Dec. 23 Sony Pictures announced that the film would have a limited release on Christmas Day.

On Dec. 24 Sony made the film available to rent or own in high definition on YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video as well as their own website, SeeTheInterview.com. Almost immediately the movie started appearing on torrents around the internet.

In the first 20 hours after its digital release TorrentFreak estimates that The Interview was downloaded 750,000 times.

TorrentFreak said that one of the main reasons for the mass torrenting was that Sony failed to give international audiences access to the movie. Polygon's review of the film called it "gross, racist, and most of the time... not even funny."