“I went to the AMC Theater in Framingham MA Sunday night with my wife, 27 year old daughter & 12 year old son to see Bee Movie. After sitting through the 10 minutes previews for coming attractions, it’s on to the Feature Presentation. Well, to everyones shock & awe what is the opening scene? There on the big screen in front of the mostly “G” audience what do we see? A naked male corpse on a slab being autopsied…………..yes we were watching SAW IV!”
Needless to say the theater emptied as if someone had yelled Fire! After less than 2 minutes the movie was stopped & we returned to the theater to sit through more coming attractions and finally BEE Movie. Now between the two movies a manager & two other workers came into the theater apologized over & over and handed each person in the theater 2 Free Passes 1 Free Coke & 1 Free Popcorn coupon. WOW I think they handled the situation tremendously…….Kudos to the AMC/Framingham. Also, on the way out of the movie the manager was waiting, apologizing again & handing out free BEE Movie posters. How refreshing……..Congratulations AMC on a job WELL DONE!!!!
-William
Nothing like taking the whole family to bond over the latest installment of a gruesome shlock horror franchise. Nice one AMC, because had you done anything less, you would have some incredibly enraged parents on your hands.
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@TechnoDestructo: Agreed. I’m sure that lots of children will try to BEEfriend them and possibly be stung to death. Yes…look up, “willing suspense of disbelief.” Then take a child to see a movie.
I used to be a manager at a Regal Cinemas in Florida. The two largest gaffs of this nature that I ever witnessed where we once threaded and started Pulp Fiction instead of Lion King when they were sharing the same theater. If you remember the opening scene of Pulp Fiction . . . quite a bit of objectionable language. Parents were not amused.
The second was when we threaded and started a movie called Twilight in which, during the first ten minutes, Resse Witherspoon shows up naked. That was started instead of Mulan. Both of those times, there were only 5 or 6 people in the theater, so we pretty much just gave them whatever they wanted to make them happy, and hoped they would not tell their friends.
@scoosdad:
That takes longer to fix than you’d think. Also, it’s further proof of shoddy quality procedures, ’cause at my theatre, we (the projectionists) would watch movies before showing them to the public.
@citking: I’m not arguing the response of the management, I’m just pointing to the inherent problem with how movie theatres are run currently. That problem is lack of trained, caring, dedicated projectionists and the willingness of the movie theatre industry to shaft those are those people.
@sibertater: I’m former because I went to Europe for a year and came back to the states to get a real job.
I’ve often toyed with the idea of getting a part time job as a projectionist just for the fun of handling movies and the free tickets. :- )
@ShadowFalls: I think some parents would like to decide on their own when their children will lose their innocence, and not have a theater shatter it for them, possibly way too early. You look upon it as realistic, I see it as possibly scarring for life. If I had seen any of the Saw movies at, say, under 10, I’d be having nightmares for years.
Waaaayyyy back when, my parents freaked out and dragged me and my siblings out of “The Terminator” simply because of Linda Hamilton’s breasts. The profanity and gruesome murders were okay with them, but not the nudity and simulated sex scene.
To go slightly off topic, am I the only one who is annoyed by the enless number of “previews” before movies? And the fact that some/many movie theatres won’t tell you when the *movie* starts, not the promos, even when you ask?
Ms. No49 would have been running screaming out of the theatre. She’s not the type that enjoys horror movies. Mr. No49 loves them and would have probably stayed if it wasn’t for the three little No49′s.
But that hasn’t happened to us.
@Buran: He said the movie was paused, and didnt say they didn’t show the rest of it.
It’s not customer service so much as damage control. Nice of the manager to make the effort though, most places wouldn’t.
I’ve noticed AMC always handles situations well. Whether from their own problems or rude guests.
I have young kids and I find this hilarious, too! Really, it’s a good example for kids to see, that people do screw up sometimes and that there is a decent way of making amends for it.
As other people have said, I would have been more pissed about the double previews. I hate previews as they normally are. In fact, it’s one of the things that has prevented me from going to the movies. I just don’t have the patience to sit through 20 minutes of advertising before seeing the movie that I paid $20 to see.
Nicely handled, AMC. Now – if only the theatres would try and do something about people bringing children under 10 years old to “hard R” films like No Country For Old Men…
It’s nice to know that Mr. Tyler Durden (from Fight Club) is still doing well and working as a projectionist for the local AMC chain.
Well, the 12 year olds going to be scarred for life, so what. He’ll be ahead in health class haha.
Umm, maybe you all missed Free coke, popcorn, and movie passes? I’d watch an ENTIRE mixed up movie if I got free tickets to 2 others of my choosing…
I’m honestly baffled by all the hating on previews. If you’re talking about the commercials for Coke or body spray before the movie, I’m with you.
But the nice looks at the movies that are coming up, tailored to say “If you like the movie you’re about to see, these might be good for you too!” I can’t think of a better way to advertise movies.
Like I said, I’d be happy to have more of them. Maybe the solution really is for theatres to say “Previews start at 8, the show starts at 8:30.” I know our local theater actually say something similar.
I still make sure to get there ten minutes before the previews start.
considering cost of movies, that’s a pretty nice thing that was done there. I remember back in the day when theater projectionists were unionized, you never had mess-ups like this, but now a days, it could be anyone workin “the booth”. I did it in college for a while. Loved working with the raw celluloid, good memories of watching movies after hours to “make sure I put them together correctly”.
Now a days you can’t pay the employees to make sure the image is properly framed or focused.
@meiran:
Wasn’t there a woman that sued all the studios for forcing people to view ads/previews before the movie. She claimed “misleading advertising” or something…saying the show time is 10pm but the movie didn’t actually show until 10:20pm.
@BigNutty:
I walked out of the Johnny Depp movie, Libertine at AMC Emeryville in the Bay Area. It was the WORST movie ever. I asked for a refund and promptly received it. Good customer service practices at AMC
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Honestly, I wouldn’t care if the movies were switched, but stuff like broken sound would drive me crazy. That’s why I love Regal Cinemas and their pagers that patrons can carry into the theater. If there’s a problem, press one of 4 call buttons (bad picture/sound, theater disturbance, one other thing I forgot, and a “other problem” button). Never had to use it, but there have been times in the past where it would have been useful.
Carmike near here has 10 or so minutes of previews and 20 minutes of commercials and the other intro stuff. When a 90 minute movie starts at 5pm, I expect to be able to make a short drive and be somewhere else by 7… but not with this place anymore.
I’ve actually started going to an older, non-stadium, theater again because I know they have 5-10 minutes of previews and that’s it.
Though if you want to see a movie that’s listed at 5:00 and it’s 5:10, you know with Carmike you can still get in, get your popcorn, and probably not even miss all the previews.
@DirtyMoney
The only way AMC would be afraid of this is if any of the people refused the vouchers. Legally it could be considered a settlement.
@Mamalicious
Well, showing pornographic images to minors for one. Showing pornographics images to extreme minors for two
@Nemesis_Enforcer: You forgot the part where you don’t get more than an hour of sleep a night for the next week because your kid is having nightmares.
@meiran: I also love movie trailers. There is no better form of advertising than a well edited trailer.
There needs to be a new tag for excellent recoveries by companies like what happened here. It isn’t Above and Beyond since they messed up first but when you have parents giving you kudos after accidentally showing their kids Saw IV that deserves recognition. Something like “Well Played” or “Noteworthy Customer Service”.