The online release of “The Interview” fared surprisingly well for Sony Pictures, as the company announced total revenues of $15 million from approximately 2 million sales and rentals. The company didn’t provide a breakdown between $15 sales and $6 rentals, but as teacher Dan Myer pointed out, it didn’t have to—a bit of simple algebra does the job.
Here’s the equation, with x=the number of rentals (and “2,000,000 – x” = the number of sales)
6x + 15 (2,000,000-x)=15,000,000
Solving the equation, x=1.67 million rentals, which means there were 330,000 downloads.
Here’s a link to the math, via Wolfram Alpha (and Daring Fireball).
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