Theater Credits 'Passion' Money to Movie Starring Bush Hater

NewsMax ^ | 3/19/04 | Limbacher

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Although "The Passion of the Christ" is one of the most popular movies of all time, with box office of more than $285 million so far, a TV news station in Miami wonders "should that dollar figure even be higher ... yes."

Here's the scoop, as reported today by WSVN-TV:

Frances Cannon "is upset because she says Gibson's movie isn't getting all the credit or cash it deserves."

A deeply religious woman, she and her family paid to see the movie but noticed their six tickets were marked "Hidalgo," not "The Passion of the Christ."

(The unpopular "Hidalgo," by the way, just so happens to star Bush-hating appeasement activist Viggo Mortensen.)

Whe Mrs. Cannon noticed the mistake and asked the cashier to fix it, the manager intervened. "He told me that they have already sold enough tickets and these six credits wouldn't matter anyway ... he's [Gibson] made enough money anyway."

She contacted Seven News after the manager again refused to give proper credit to "The Passion."

'Theft'

The station's legal expert, Howard Finkelstein, said: "This is clearly a breach of contract ... when someone makes a movie they get money based upon ticket sales ... in this case the money that Mel Gibson's movie should have gotten went to another movie ... if this was done intentionally it's theft."

The station says a corporate official of the chain, which it did not identify, admitted the manager was wrong, should have corrected the error and would correct it.

WSVN reports: "The theater wanted to know why Frances was so concerned about this. Bottom line ... she didn't want to get anyone in trouble ... she just wanted to make sure that Mel Gibson's movie got the money she paid ... We contacted Mel Gibson's people ... they are aware of the situation."

The reader who sent us this tip wonders, "Is this kind of theft of Mel Gibson going on in other parts of the country?"

Movie fans, check your ticket stubs, and raise hell if your money is incorrectly going to Viggo or the other pampered leftists of Tinseltown.

[Skooz]

one girlfriend dumped him for his "lack of attention to personal hygiene!"

It wouldn't be this one, would it?

[JohnHuang2]

Thanks for the ping, friend.

[Siobhan]

Simply unbelievable.

[Argh]

Viggo ping!

[JustPlainJoe]

This is being done by the SAME crowd (or near relations) who SCREAM that people sharing files via the internet are STEALING! Even if it is only ONE song, it's STEALING and they say these people should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Yet, when they fudge ticket sales in mass quantities like this, it's alright, because "Gibson's made enough"???

[Semper Vigilantis]

"He told me that they have already sold enough tickets and these six credits wouldn't matter anyway ... he's [Gibson] made enough money anyway."

How long before the DNC contacts this guy? I see a bright future for this man as a Florida ballot counter in November. </ sarcasm>

[theFIRMbss]

>A deeply religious woman, she and her family paid to see the movie but noticed their six tickets were marked "Hidalgo," not "The Passion of the Christ."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Show Me the tax money."

So they brought Him a denarius.

And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"

They said to Him, "Caesar's."

And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

[Matthew 22:19-21]

[TomB]

Mortenson has less personality than a roll of sod.

LOL! I was watching one of the cds that came with LOTR and it had an interview with him. He is easily the most bland individual I've ever seen interviewed.

[Rocky]

"I wonder if they were trying to pump up their own bottom line by overselling sold-out showtimes. Rather than tell people it's sold out"

I think you missed the point. You go to a theater to see "The Passion", you buy 6 tickets. It says go to theater number 12. You go to theater number 12, and above the door, it says, "The Passion". And that is indeed what is playing inside. However, you notice that the TICKET says, "Hidalgo". In other words, people are paying to see "The Passion", and they are watching "The Passion", but the money is going to "Hidalgo".

[Aquinasfan]

Movie fans, check your ticket stubs, and raise hell if your money is incorrectly going to Viggo or the other pampered leftists of Tinseltown.

Will do.

The first time I went, the ticket read, "The Passion of Chris." They ran out of space for the "t." 8-)

[mewzilla]

Well, how much does the theatre get, though? The same cut from every movie, or does the percentage vary with the film? If the distributor of Hidalgo, for example, agreed to part with a larger cut, I could see why the theatre would be tempted to lie about which tickets were sold.

[netmilsmom]

See 14.
This movie was too big to be contained in the screens it was originally booked in.
At my local theater, people were walking out and buying tickets for the next showing they could get.
OF course the manager is not going to lose those patrons! He will move another movie that is not selling and show The Passion.

[Libertina]

"He told me that they have already sold enough tickets and these six credits wouldn't matter anyway ... he's [Gibson] made enough money anyway."
Hmmm, sounds pretty political to me!

[rovenstinez]

There are already 100,000 pirated DVD's of The Passion running the streets here in Mexico!!. MORE cash that won't show up on true bottom line figures for M. Gibson. AND it hasn't even showed up in theatres yet, but I've talked to a dozen people who have purchased illegal DVD copies.

[Sender]

Viggo may be a Bush-hater but I did enjoy "Hidalgo". Most of it is set in the Religion of Peace areas, quite interesting.

[general_re]

No, I understand that perfectly - I'm simply wondering why they would do that. It seems to me that if some popular movie is sold out, unscrupulous theater owners might sell patrons the wrong ticket on purpose, rather than turn them away entirely.

[nutmeg]

Excellent post! Gotta ping my list to this one...

[yle1138]

I hate to say this guys, but this is a fairly common occurrence at movie theaters across the country. Basically, the theater is trying to offset their rental costs for films that may not be living up to expectations, or they simply do not want to pay the higher rental fee for bigger films so they transfer those funds to films with a lower rental cost.

There was massive evidence of this during the run of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Theaters did not want to pay out the very high costs for playing Star Wars on their screens (for the first three weeks of it’s run George Lucas and Fox kept some 80% of all box office receipts) so to offset this they would charge the tickets to another film. Quite often a patron of Star Wars would be surprised to find their tickets say “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” or “The Mummy”. This way the theater got to keep more of their profits.

It happens all the time during major releases, and I’m quite sure it has happened to everyone on this board at some time but they simply didn’t look at their ticket. To be honest I will no longer go to AMC Theaters due to this practice (they are probably the worst offenders in this regard), during the summer of 99 I went to Star Wars a few times, and every time I went to an AMC theater I was given a ticket to another film… so I only go to Harkins Theatres now (and frankly they give a much better audio/video presentation than AMC).

So if you run into this issue just go up to the ticket counter and demand you be given the proper ticket. Most of the time they will try to blow you off and tell you that it doesn’t matter, but be insistent.

Yancy