Take that, terrorists who may or may not be backed by the government of North Korea! Sony has confirmed today that it will go ahead with the Christmas Day release of The Interview but only at a small number of theaters.

“We have never given up on releasing The Interview, and we’re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters Christmas Day,” says Sony Entertainment Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton in a statement to the Dallas Morning News. “At the same time we are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience.

Sony is calling the small debut of the James Franco/Seth Rogen comedy “the first step of the film’s release,” which we hope is an indication that people will be able to decide whether or not they want to see the movie in a wider release.

The Morning News first reported that the Texas-based chain of Alamo Drafthouse theaters had been given the go-ahead by Sony to show the film on its original planned release date.

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted how this whole thing would have played out,” says Alamo Drafthouse DFW programmer James Wallace.

When Sony scrapped plans last week for the Christmas release, Alamo tried to screen the 2004 comedy Team America: World Police — which also mocks the leadership of North Korea — in its place. However, Paramount, the studio behind that film, refused to let it be seen.

“We tried to have some fun with an otherwise tough situation and then somehow became the unlikely champions for freedom of expression,” continues Wallace. “The response has been truly overwhelming and we were all absolutely amazed by the international outpouring of support for cinema and freedom of expression.”

The Alamo Drafthouse website is currently being overrun with visitors, so we can’t tell if The Interview will be screened at all Drafthouse locations or only a few. CBS News reports that the movie will be running at the Alamo near Consumer Reports HQ in Yonkers.

While the Alamo site is still reacting poorly because of the flood of interest in this news, it looks like this will be a chain-wide offering. In addition to the Texas locations and the Yonkers theater, Alamo has confirmed its Kansas City theater will have the movie, as has the Twitter account for its D.C.-area location in Virginia.

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