On top of the $1.8 million earned over the weekend at the box office by the buzzy comedy The Interview, a portion of the film’s $1 million take on Christmas day came from one man, and he wants a refund.
In a report over at Variety, an Ohio man purchased 50 tickets at $13 each for the film’s limited Christmas day release, hoping to scalp them online. Of course, shortly after it was announced the film would have a limited theatrical release it was revealed it would be released online at the same time for $5.99 and the man’s hopes were dashed.
“I thought I’d get my money back because the theater’s website *very clearly* said the tickets were refundable,” the man told Cincinatti radio station WCPO in an email. Turns out the theater doesn’t have a website and he actually bought them off MovieTickets.com, with a warning theaters may not offer refunds. Oops.
In other news, Sony is reporting The Interview made $15 million in online sales and rentals in North America between Wednesday and Saturday. There’s no way of telling if this model will work for future films, especially considering the circumstances surrounding the film, but I think it does say a little something about audiences and this man’s experience that if you make the movies available online people will stay home instead of heading to the theaters. Not sure what that says about the future of day-and-date theatrical/online releases, but it’s a starting point.
