When people look back at the movies of 2005, they’ll notice that cinema takings were in the middle of a big slump, and that publicity for the films went a bit crazy. That’s why an American cinema chain is saying that if you go to see the new Russell Crowe movie, Cinderella Man, and don’t love it, they’ll give you an on-the-spot refund.
AMC Entertainment, America’s number two cinema chain are hoping to give a boost to the critically acclaimed but commercially disappointing Cinderella Man by giving customers their money back if they don’t love the film.
AMC have been running advertisements since June 24th offering
instant refunds to any patrons who are unhappy with the Russell Crowe (DVDs) depression-era
boxing film. They claim that Cinderella Man is "one of the finest
motion pictures of the year!"
The chain already offers refunds to dissatisfied customers on a
case-by-case basis, but this is the first time that they have run such
a well-publicised promotion of this kind since Mystic Pizza in 1988.
But why are they doing it, and why choose Cinderella Man?
It’s no secret that cinemas are in a giant slump at the moment. For
18 continuous weeks, the weekend box office takings have been in
year-on-year decline. And the money-back offer is simply a high-profile
way to shake the movie-goers back into life.
Cinderella Man has fared especially badly during the slump because it’s
a serious film about struggle and conflict and depression, and the
competition are all films about space fights and superheroes and
cartoon giraffes. Do you want to go and see a story about a poor boxer
or do you want to go and see a film where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
try and stab each other for two hours? The time just isn’t right for
serious movies.
And in a summer season where publicity knows no boundaries – a star
copping off with his co-star behind his wife’s back, a star proposing
to his young girlfriend and then pushing his religion into people’s
faces – Russell Crowe‘s tactics of lobbing a telephone at a hotel
porter and then doing some karate moves just won’t cut it.
Hopefully, this move by AMC will shake cinema out of it’s slump and
other chains will start offering money-back incentives for other films.
hecklerspray could do with seeing some crappy films for free.
[story by Stuart Heritage]