Washington blames North Korea for a breach of cyber security at Sony which led to the release of embarrassing emails and prompted executives to halt the release of "The Interview".
The movie, which was due to open on Christmas Day, is a madcap romp about a CIA plot to kill leader Kim Jong-Un that has infuriated the secretive state.
Pyongyang has repeatedly denied that it was behind last month's crippling attack, which also led to the leaking of scripts, and called yesterday for a joint probe with the US.
A senior US administration official told AFP that Washington had asked Beijing, Pyongyang's closest ally, to help block further cyber attacks.
The official said that during discussions on internet security both the US and China had "expressed the view that conducting destructive attacks in cyberspace is outside the norms of appropriate cyber behaviour".
Sony has defended its decision to cancel the release of "The Interview" after anonymous hackers invoked the 9/11 attacks in threatening cinemas screening the film. Theatres then said they would not show it.
The FBI blamed North Korea, saying attackers used malware to break into the studio and render thousands of Sony Pictures computers inoperable, forcing the company to take its entire network offline.
It said analysis of the software tools which were used revealed links to other malware known to have been developed by "North Korean actors".
The FBI also cited "significant overlap" between the attack and other "malicious cyber-activity" with direct links to Pyongyang, including an attack on South Korean banks carried out by the North.
"We will respond. We will respond proportionately and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose.