Red Light, Green Light

So Sony made the decision today to pull the movie The Interview from theaters because of anonymous threats, so the film won't be released on Christmas Day. What I can't understand is how this movie got a green light to be made in the first place. Who is the audience for a movie (a comedy!) about an assassination of a real foreign dictator? I don't know. Are there enough fans of Seth Rogan and/or James Franco who would support such a film? Who knows. What I want to know is how many films didn't get the green light from Sony because the studio was too busy working on The Interview? It's a shame independent, minority, and LGBT movies have such a hard time finding funding when schlock like The Interview gets backing from a major studio. The same goes for the book market. Whose book proposals were rejected so James Franco, Ethan Hawke, Nicole Richie, and a variety of other celebrities could have book deals? I know the thinking is that celebrities have a built-in audience, but it's still not right that people who don't have a big name or want to tell a story that isn't cookie-cutter aren't able to get their foot in the door.