Carmike Cinemas, which operates 247 cinemas across the country, was the first to pull the screenings of the film, according to and .

The late developments came just hours after the hackers released a data dump that they called a “Christmas gift”. Included in the latest breach are 32,000 e-mails to and from Sony co-chair and CEO Michael Lynton, as well as specific threats against patrons of the comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogen.

In , Rogen and Franco star as television journalists involved in a CIA plot to kill Kim.

But in a chilling message invoking the memory of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the hackers urged audiences to stay away from venues showing the film. The warning prompted law enforcement in New York and Los Angeles to address measures to ramp up security.

"We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time," the hackers wrote. "If your house is nearby, you’d better leave."

The Department of Homeland Security has said there is no credible intelligence to indicate a threat, but is still investigating the message.

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Sony told cinema owners on Tuesday that they would be supportive of individual decisions on whether or not to show the film, which is still set for a Christmas release, according to multiple reports.

The National Association of Theatre Owners had no comment about pulling of the film by its members.

The fallout from the hack that began four weeks ago exploded after the shadowy group calling themselves Guardians of Peace escalated their attack beyond corporate espionage and threatened moviegoers with violence reminiscent of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

On Tuesday Rogen and Franco pulled out of all media appearances. Both camps had no comment.

The film’s New York premiere is scheduled for Thursday at Manhattan’s Landmark Sunshine, and it is expected to hit cinemas nationwide on Christmas Day. It premiered in Los Angeles last week without incident.

“Having read through the threat material myself, it’s actually not crystal clear whether it’s a cyber response that they are threatening or whether it’s a physical attack,” said John Miller, the New York police’s top counterterrorism official.

Everything from financial figures to salacious e-mails between top Sony executives has been dumped online by the hackers.

Two former Sony film production workers filed lawsuits alleging the company waited too long to notify nearly 50,000 employees that data such as Social Security numbers, salaries and medical records had been stolen. Two other former Sony employees accused the studio of being negligent by not bolstering its defences against hackers before the attack.

Sony potentially faces tens of millions of dollars in damages from a class-action lawsuit, said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment law professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

The nearly 32,000 emails to and from Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Lynton leaked Tuesday include information about casting decisions and total costs for upcoming films, release schedules for Sony films through 2018 and corporate financial records, such as royalties from iTunes, Spotify and Pandora music services.

They include information about new electronics devices such as DVD players and cellphones. They also include budget figures for the Motion Picture Association of America, of which Sony is a member, and at least one e-mail about a senior Sony executive who left the company.

The e-mails also include banal messages about public appearances, tennis matches, home repairs, dinner invitations and business introductions.

In their warning on Tuesday, the hackers suggested Sony employees make contact via several disposable email addresses ending in yopmail.com. Frenchman Frederic Leroy, who started up the yopmail site in 2004, said there was no way he could identify the users.

“I cannot see the identities of people using the address ... there is no name, no first name,” he said.

With additional reporting from Reuters