I demand a refund!

[HarryLong]

The Good German

I guess "Rated R for language, violence and some sexual content" is just still too esoteric for some people.

A friend of mine manages a theater and took a complaint from someone over the language in the remake of LADYKILLERS. He said, "I wanted to drag her out to the poster and say, 'You see the motherucking rating? It's rated motherfucking R for motherfucking language!'"

[MaxCastle]

The Good German

I guess "Rated R for language, violence and some sexual content" is just still too esoteric for some people.

A friend of mine manages a theater and took a complaint from someone over the language in the remake of LADYKILLERS. He said, "I wanted to drag her out to the poster and say, 'You see the motherucking rating? It's rated motherfucking R for motherfucking language!'"

A colleague of mine complained to the cinema about the language in Reservoir Dogs, and demanded a refund. Bizarrely, they gave her one.

[Sanjuro]

Cinema seem to give refunds to anyone who bothers to ask for one for whatever reason.

My favourite at the place I used to work at was 'I didn't like the movie - give me my money back'. And every time, without fail, they not only got their money back but also an apology from the manager. Baffling.

[Tommaso]

A friend of mine once walked out of a screening of Rohmer's "La Marquise d'O.", saying that this was not a movie. He also got his money back.

[Matt]

I think most cinema managers think two things when someone asks for a refund: 1) If I give them a refund now, they might still come here to see movies. If I don't give them a refund, they not only won't come back, they'll tell all their friends, too. And 2) What's the quickest way to get this person out of my face? Say yes.

[willoneill]

I don't know what their general policy is, but last year when a theatre where I lived played the remake of Funny Games, they deliberately put a sign up saying that there would be NO refunds if you didn't like, or were offended by, the movie.

[HarryLong]

Cinema seem to give refunds to anyone who bothers to ask for one for whatever reason.

I think most cinema managers think two things when someone asks for a refund: 1) If I give them a refund now, they might still come here to see movies. If I don't give them a refund, they not only won't come back, they'll tell all their friends, too. And 2) What's the quickest way to get this person out of my face?

Both of the above plus it keeps the patron from making an angy phone call/email/letter to coroprate ...
And I think generally the refund is in the form of a pass to see any movie at any time rather than a cash refund or a reverse on the old credit/debit card.

[Gregory]

I've never gone so far as to ask for a refund. Years ago I would occasionally make polite complaints about egregious projection practices and never even succeeded in getting any kind of apology from theater staff, so I figured a refund was out of the question. Such projection crimes are probably familiar to many people here: projecting an entire film out-of-focus despite complaints, shutting the projector off before the end credits, etc.

[MichaelB]

I've asked for refunds three times - in all cases successfully (and involving cash), and all to do with unsatisfactory presentation.

1. Empire Leicester Square, Gladiator. Absolutely ear-splitting volume, to the point where it was actually causing physical pain. Sat through the opening battle scene on the assumption that it would quieten down to a more sensible level when the dialogue scenes started. It didn't - the background sound remained so loud that I couldn't hear what people were saying upfront. Walked out. No-quibbles cash refund.

2. Curzon Soho, Shoot the Pianist. Again, insanely high volume level - in this case, the manager conceded that something had gone very badly wrong and apologised profusely once the sound had been turned down to something saner. But by then we'd missed at least 5-10 minutes, so cash refund.

3. Odeon Covent Garden, Hidden, digital projection. Absolutely fine up to the dinner party scene, when the subtitles started running out of sync (each line of dialogue was accompanied by the previous subtitle). Initially wondered whether this was a post-modern Haneke trick, quickly decided that it wasn't, so walked out. Repellently patronising manager assured me that what I was describing wasn't technically possible, but gave me a cash refund anyway. Next day I rang the distributor, who said that my exit was merely the first of many, and something had indeed gone wrong with the projection - to their credit, they offered me free admission to any subsequent screening of the film, so I actually made a profit on that one.

[Murdoch]

The only time I've ever got a refund was for a screening of the Hurt Locker when the projector broke and the audience sat in the darkened theatre for half an hour waiting for it to be resolved - which it never was.

Although I should have asked for refunds when I saw Children of Men and The Informant! since during the first twenty minutes of the former the top of the frame was cut off, and during the first half of the latter the audio kept dropping to levels that were barely audible.

[skuhn8]

I had to leave a cinema due to bomb threats twice. This meant not only leaving the cinema but exiting the mall and waiting outside without shelter in the summer sun. The second time I tried to get a refund remembering what a nuisance and wait the first incident entailed. The gal at the booth informed me that after security cleared them they would start the film from the beginning (we'd already endured half) without extra charge.

BTW, this was here in Budapest about 1998 when the first malls were opening up with high standard cineplexes. The scares were most likely coming in from competitors, small cinemas struggling against the big corporate entities. Before one has too much sympathy for the little guys, many of these smaller cinemas were staffed by churlish morons who didn't care about film, equipped with blown sound systems (nighttime discotheque activities took their toll), mingy bathrooms that you had to pay to use, and seats that were crammed so tight a child would bruise their legs. Fortunately, within 5 years all the cinemas that should have closed down had closed down (the worst of the batch returned to its original glory as a proper theatre).

[MichaelB]

I had to leave a cinema due to bomb threats twice.

I can beat that - I had to evacuate a cinema due to bomb threats - and a genuine one, too: an IRA bomb was found and defused in the nearby Tube station.

We couldn't process refunds at the time (given the urgent need to get people out of there and down the road past the POLICE - DO NOT CROSS tape), but we told everyone to keep their ticket stubs and promised that we'd repeat the programme as soon as possible. I don't recall any problems with disgruntled punters - it was an afternoon screening, heavily dominated by regulars who knew that the cinema was being inconvenienced much more than they were. In fact, we lost the better part of the day's projected income, because it was several hours before we were allowed to open again.

[Sloper]

I don't have any fun cinema stories, but I had to leave the Birmingham Rep's production of Shaw's Saint Joan when clouds of noxious smoke started billowing from the set, shortly followed by pretty green flames. Several audience members just walked out without saying anything to the still-oblivious actors - eventually some kind soul in the front row stood up and said, 'Excuse me, your set's on fire.' It was quite funny when we all congregated outside and the actors were standing around in their costumes like refugees from a posh stag night.

Everyone got refunds or tickets for another performance. Even from the first ten minutes, though, it was apparent that this was going to be a crushingly boring production, and luckily I was unable to attend the later show. My friends were not so fortunate; they spent most of the evening wishing the set would burn down again.

[Dr Amicus]

I've been evacuated twice for bomb scares, both in the 80s. Once in London (for Johnny Handsome, I think it was the Odeon Haymarket) and again in Guernsey (Absolute Beginners). In both cases, we were allowed in a short while later and the film resumed. I don't think we ever found out who made the bomb threat for Guernsey - we're not exactly a centre of terrorism and unlike Skuhn8's experiences, our cinema back then had no competition.

The only time I've walked out of a film and complained was with the Ealing revivals a few years back. I went to see Man in the White Suit and was disappointed (but not hugely surprised) to find that the local multiplex (it was the UGC on Brighton Marina) was not equipped to show academy ratio and the film was being cropped to 1.85 (or similar). I was offered a refund, but I had a season pass (I forget what they were actually called - £9.99 a month and go as often as you liked) and thus hadn't actually spent any money.

Two occasions I SHOULD have asked for a refund were at the Brighton Odeon - Citizen Kane having the same non-Academy issues (I stuck with it - and feel suitably ashamed ), and later the horror film They, shown just after a screen conversion when their lights were still bright to enough to read by even after their so-called dimming! Great atmosphere! Their excuse was as these were new builds, they had to conform to new health & safety guidelines...

A happier (!) story from the wonderful Duke of York in Brighton - about 5 minutes before the end of Before Night Falls, the projector chewed the film up. There was no hope of last minutes being showable, and as the film was on its last day there was no hope of getting a new print for later showings - so everyone got a voucher for a free screening. I felt a little guilty taking it (there were only a few minutes to go at most), so I used it to go and watch 2001 for the umpteenth time (which I might not have done otherwise).

More than once I have gotten out of my seat to complain about the projection (usually being racked too high or low), and in at least one case not fitting the anamorphic lens properly. So far, these have all been acted on quickly!

Finally, at our film society - we show projected DVDs, and on one occasion (After the Wedding) our main copy froze, broke up and didn't want to play any more. Luckily, we always have a back-up - and so I had to change the discs over, find the right chapter and fast forward to get to the right point. As we're not a large society, this was greeted with amusement more than anything else - with a lively discussion as to which chapter point to go to (IIRC there aren't many on the DVD).

[foliagecop]

In the early 90s I went to the Glasgow Film Theatre to see 'Lonely Hearts', a Resnick TV serial starring Tom Wilkinson. There was a peculiar green hue to the screen throughout, which certainly hadn't been there in the TV version. No one asked for a refund. To be honest, it actually made the film much creepier than it had been on telly.

One of those rare occassions when a mistake actually enhances the viewing experience.

[Sloper]

One of those rare occassions when a mistake actually enhances the viewing experience.

One of my most treasured cinema-going memories is of seeing The Third Man in some small, virtually empty, place in London. The curtain began to close somewhat prematurely; I don't know if it was programmed to do this during all films (most of which would have lots of credits at the end) or if somebody jumped the gun, or if the effect was deliberate, but it gave a lovely theatrical flourish to that final moment. You could just about catch Joseph Cotten tossing the match away as the curtains swept over him. Just a little thing but it made me very happy.

[Yojimbo]

The only film I can recall wanting a refund for was 'Primer'

[stereo]

Took a whole day off of my time to see Playtime in 70mm at The Castro in SF a few years back. One of the projectors broke, but they didn't stop the film; they just took a five minute break between reels for the rest of the film.

[tenia]

I'm French.

I watched Munich in France with the sound completely jammed for the last 30 minutes (music score all distorded), Evolution with the same problem for the WHOLE movie, and other ones when I had to exit the room, go find someone from the theater and say 'You know, you've put the 2.35 bars. The movie is in 1.85. I missed 10 minutes, 15 minutes (but I was the only one to notice it, that's probably the worst).

I watched Land of the Dead in Italy, in an old theater (for theaters plays). They've put a break in the middle of it, without any reason. And it was an old wooden theater, so at each explosion, the whole room was vibrating.

I never had any refund. Never even seen someone asking for one.

I was near Corona, CA, watching an evening screening of Hancock. The sound went crazy (crashes, volume-dropping...) for, like, 20 seconds. Everybody started to yell 'WTF ?!' and before they ended their yell, it was over.
When the movie ended, at the exit doors, there were giving free admissions in apology.

It was 20 seconds !

I found that kind of unbelievable.

[Tommaso]

The very first time I saw "Battleship Potemkin" was at a small local cinema, sometime in the 90s. The film was split over five reels, and for some reason they showed the last reel in third place. Now at that time I only wondered about the strange jump in the narrative, and curiously the rest of the audience kept quiet too. Then the third and fourth reel came; at that point it had become clear to me that some error had occured. Then the screening stopped with the fourth reel. Now everyone (me included) expected that the final reel would be shown again, but the projectionist declined to do that and asked the audience to leave. It took about 10 minutes and a lot of clamouring from the audience - almost no-one had left - to make the projectionist show the end of the film again in the place where it belonged.

[MichaelB]

I watched Land of the Dead in Italy, in an old theater (for theaters plays). They've put a break in the middle of it, without any reason. And it was an old wooden theater, so at each explosion, the whole room was vibrating.

I never had any refund. Never even seen someone asking for one.

That's because they'd have been laughed at. I certainly recall plenty of cinemas in Italy (I spent a fair bit of time there in the mid-80s) having breaks in the middle of films - and, if I remember rightly, part of Lamberto Bava's Demons takes place during just such a break.

[tenia]

I watched Land of the Dead in Italy, in an old theater (for theaters plays). They've put a break in the middle of it, without any reason. And it was an old wooden theater, so at each explosion, the whole room was vibrating.

I never had any refund. Never even seen someone asking for one.

That's because they'd have been laughed at.

It was an exemple like among others.

But it's not that we would have been laughed at.

It's just that you've got the refund easily.

I mean, you're the country where you can go to the restaurant, order something, taste it, and if you don't like it (not even if the food is not good, but just not at your convenience), you can send it back and choose something else. Indefinitely. And just pay the last one you get.

Here, we choose, and we deal with it.

You found that the movie was bad/outrageous/not at your taste ?

You should have chosen the movie more carefully.

[Antoine Doinel]

I only asked for a refund once. A local arthouse promised a screening of a print of Barry Lyndon only to substitute it at the very last minute (without telling anyone of course) with a DVD (they said later it was due to print damage). I found out when the lights went dark and then a "PLAY" icon came up on the screen before the WB logo. Sigh. I sat for about ten brutal minutes trying to endure a grotesquely pixellated picture before I walked out and got my money back.

[Brian C]

I've had any number of bad projection experiences that led to premature exits, but the one that pissed me off the most was when I went to see KILLER OF SHEEP at the Angelika in Dallas. They showed it in 1.85, which was obviously wrong from the opening credits. Ordinarily I'd have walked out right then, but it was the last night of the film's run, and who knew when I'd ever get a chance to see it theatrically again, right?

Afterwards I argued with the manager on duty about it. Despite having no idea what I was talking about, he assured me that it had been shown properly. I assured him that it's generally customary for opening titles - and characters' foreheads - to fit on the screen. Finally he gave me a free pass for my next visit.

I was disappointed in the experience. Obviously, if I go to the local AMC Googolplex, I expect to have problems like this*. But the Angelika really ought to have known better, especially by the end of a weeklong run. I'd seen many movies in the Academy ratio there in the past - at the time they often played Rialto reissues - and never had problems, but their sense eluded them on that one.

Fortunately for me, I've since moved to Chicago, and I have venues like the Music Box and the Gene Siskel Film Center where these things are understood. And my filmgoing choices are beyond anything I could have possibly imagined in Dallas, so I'm a happy moviegoer all around.

*-As an aside, New Line and WB idiot-proofed their prints of GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ, respectively, in this regard during their theatrical reissues in the 90s. Both came printed with window-boxing on the film itself, so that the theatres could use their normal lenses. Oddly, New Line decided that the GWTW print should be anamorphic to boot, so moviegoers were presented with a 2.35 ratio screen that was window-boxed to 1.33. Never understood that one myself.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

*-As an aside, New Line and WB idiot-proofed their prints of GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ, respectively, in this regard during their theatrical reissues in the 90s. Both came printed with window-boxing on the film itself, so that the theatres could use their normal lenses. Oddly, New Line decided that the GWTW print should be anamorphic to boot, so moviegoers were presented with a 2.35 ratio screen that was window-boxed to 1.33. Never understood that one myself.

A 1.37:1 image pillarboxed within a 2.39:1 print has more resolution than a 1.37:1 image windowboxed within a 1.85:1 print -- with the latter you lose both vertical and horizontal resolution, with the former you lose horizontal resolution but keep the full vertical resolution. Disney has also done this with some of their animated reissues.