First, movie theaters across the country dropped Sony Pictures’ The Interview from their schedules in the face of cyber-terrorists’ threats against screenings. Then, Sony decided to indefinitely postpone the movie’s release. The stalled action comedy stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as an American TV talk show duo sent to assassinate North Korea’s totalitarian ruler Kim Jong-un.

It’s a silly concept, but the trailers look fun. While you and I think it’s just a silly movie, the United States government believes the movie led North Korea to launch the massive Sony hack last month. Totalitarian dictators don’t have much of a sense of humor.

The Sony hackers are now threatening to attack movie theaters that screen the film. On Wednesday, the biggest theater chains in the United States all dropped The Interview in response to the threat.

Apparently, theater chains are content to let North Korean-backed cyber-terrorists censor what films they’ll show on American screens. Sadly, Sony buckled too and has no plans to release The Interview. This is a dangerous precedent and it’s time for America to take this attack seriously.

The Sony hacking has been treated as a revealing voyeuristic look inside a Hollywood studio. There have been some funny revelations like the Sony executives fretting over all of the boring Adam Sandler movies they put out. We’ve seen studio executives email each other complaining about stars. We saw an offensive exchange about President Obama between two executives. It’s a slow-motion train wreck and America, enabled by the media, can’t take its eyes away.

I’ll admit, I laughed at the Adam Sandler memos, but I was wrong; it wasn’t funny. The scary reality is the hack was the work of a brutal foreign dictatorship trying to censor an American film. We shouldn’t allow it to happen. Every American should stand with Sony on this. Stop gawking at the accident and stand up for freedom of expression.

American values are under attack. Yes, we’re still talking about a Seth Rogen movie, but that's not hyperbole. This attack strikes at the heart of our values. Maybe the movie is silly. Maybe it's terrible. It doesn’t really matter, though. Freedom of expression needs to be protected. Foreign dictatorships don’t get to dictate what movies we make in America and what movies we watch in America.

If we allow North Korea and cyber-terrorists to censor The Interview, we’re opening the door to more censorship. Now studios, directors, and actors will think twice before they produce a movie that criticizes a foreign government like Iran or North Korea or Russia. The movie may never get to theaters. And all of your emails might be opened up for the world to sift through. That’s going to stop most people cold.

The theaters that dropped The Interview bowed to dangerous thugs. They should reverse course and proudly show the film. If they don’t, you won’t see films taking on Vladimir Putin or Iran’s mullahs. These regimes are watching. What we do with this movie matters more than we can imagine. North Korea is giving ideas to Putin and other thugs.

It’s not just the movie that’s on the line. Lives and careers at Sony are being destroyed. Amy Pascal, the chairman of Sony’s Motion Pictures Group, had her racially-charged emails about Obama exposed. They were offensive. But it was a private conversation and it’s a stretch to say she’s a bigot. And that private conversation was only revealed in an attempt to censor the film.

It’s rumored that Pascal’s job is on the line at Sony. It shouldn’t be. Pascal’s offhand emails don’t matter in the big picture. If she loses her job, that’s a big scalp for North Korea. That would blow to freedom.

Mitt Romney has suggested that theaters show the film for free while asking patrons to contribute to worthy charities. Not a bad idea, on the face of it. Perhaps Obama can do better? Up until now, he hasn’t even condemned the attack. President Obama needs to step up to defend Sony and Pascal. Obama shouldn’t let Kim Jong-un destroy careers just because Kim was offended by a movie.  We need to show that cyber-terror can’t win.

Americans shouldn’t be afraid to see this movie. It was scheduled for a Christmas Day release. But, North Korea has changed your holiday moviegoing plans. When the film finally does come out, every American should turn out to support it. Go out to watch Seth Rogen and James Franco give Kim Jong-un what he has coming. You’ll remind North Korea that Americans don’t let anyone tell us what to say or what to watch.

Hollywood, liberal as it may be, is a part of America and no one gets to bully us.

Chris Covucci is an attorney and Republican strategist in New York. @ChrisCovucci