The Interview enjoyed a Merry Christmas after all, making $1 million in limited theater releases on Thursday, and over 900,000 illegal downloads in the first 24 hours after it appeared. According to The Verge, the film is at the top of YouTube’s most popular list. The movie opened in 331 small and independent theaters on Christmas day, after being pulled by Sony due to terror threats and a hacking scandal that the FBI connected to North Korea. The film was released online on Wednesday.

The movie, a comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogan as assassins of Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, was reportedly ridiculously easy to pirate, requiring users to simply copy and paste the link in order to share it with friends. It was released online only in the U.S., to those paying with a U.S. credit card and downloading to a U.S. IP address. Sony said in a statement that they hope to eventually have it released in other countries. For now, international hunger for the film can be satisfied only through illegal downloads.

The pirating has certainly hurt Sony financially. The film, with a budget of over $80 million, has become a banner for free speech and patriotism, along with determination not to cave to terrorism. After the planned release was cancelled there was fervor to have Sony reverse the decision and air the The Interview. More than 152,000 people left ratings of The Interview across the download sites, including 112,000 thumbs up reviews.

Sony did not report proceeds from the online sales of The Interview, which cost $15 to purchase and $6 to rent. Film studios commonly do not report their online sales and rental figures.

Originally Sony had planned to release the film in 2,000 U.S. theaters. The theaters that ended up airing it on its originally scheduled opening day were small, ranging anywhere from 170 to 400 seats. Rory Bruer, president of distribution for Sony, said in a statement Friday morning that, considering the difficulties involved, the company is extremely grateful to those who came out to see the film.