I'll be flat out honest here and say I don't think the closing down/cancellation of this movie has anything at all to do with the "threat of terrorist attacks" or that it's some "publicity stunt". This isn't about free speech, it isn't about freedom of expression, and it isn't about any sort of ruffled feathers. The truth of the matter is, these hackers have 100 terabytes of Sony emails and information, including things on actors, producers, directors, and a large number of Hollywood elite. Sony has released distasteful and offensive movies in the past. They've even received similar threats without batting an eye. I'm willing to bet the left part of my reproductive anatomy that there's some dark, seedy things in those emails, enough to get a mutli-billion dollar corporation to fold, and go into full fledged damage control to stem the information. And I really really doubt it's just some latent racism and badmouthing some actors. All that has been status quo and known in the business for decades.
Like Corey Feldman has said in numerous interviews, "Hollywood is FULL of paedophiles." It's Hollywood's "best kept secret." It's been rumored for years that big names in the business like Rob Reiner, David Geffen, Roman Polanski(which was proven to be true), as well as big names across the pond like Jimmy Saville(also now proven to have been a child rapist with something like 200+ cases coming forward after his death) are paedophiles. The problems with prosecuting them though have been lack of concrete evidence, and a running out of statutes of limitations. It should be noted these hackers aren't just demanding this movie not be shown, but they're also demanding a very large sum to not release the rest of the emails. You don't cow-tow to stuff like hacked emails unless there's something seriously damning in them. We've been dealing with death threats and terrorist threats for controversial movies since at least the 70's. And as we have seen with that basketball owner, most of them don't really give much a rat's ass if racist comments are leaked either. We shouldn't be damning these hackers, we should be demanding they release the rest of the emails so we can know exactly what sorts of people we are supporting by buying these movie tickets.