I think you absolutely should get a refund. A business should stand behind their products, and issue refunds if they are unsatisfactory to their customers.
I was a box office cashier back in high school at a big multiplex. I’d say generally you’ll get your money back for any good reason you have (ill, scared kids, etc.). If you just hate the movie, it is more difficult. I saw one woman demand a refund from ‘Blair Witch’ halfway through the movie, and she got it after a few minutes of argument. One time I saw a more hard-ass manager arguing for nearly an hour about refunds for a group of people (not sure what it was about though).
For larger issues (projector breaks, etc.) a free pass was issued instead of refunds, and somehow it usually went pretty smoothly.
Day of the week probably matters but this factor seems very complex now that i think about it.
It would never occur to me to ask for a refund because I didn’t like the movie. The minimum wage clerks can’t help it if Keanu sucked or the plot twist was as predictable as a Road Runner cartoon. Ditto live theater (man, can you imagine the stampede at most college or high school productions? It’d be like that LITTLE RASCALS “Pay as you Exit” short if anybody else ever saw it.
That said,
If it’s a star vehicle (i.e. not a road show but one with a ‘name’ actor) personally I think that’s perfectly reasonable- maybe not a full cash refund, but an adjustment or raincheck ticket. One of the reasons the ticket costs $150 is that I’m paying to see Patty Lupone rather than “Mary Lou Neverheardofher” (who may in fact be just as talented but isn’t famous and isn’t earning $100,000 per week that would justify the ticket price).
There are some outdoor theaters in North Carolina (historical pageants- Horn in the West, The Lost Colony, usually paraprofessional & college actors) that have big disclaimers up stating “no refunds in the event of rain or inclement weather” but they will give a literal rain-check ticket- you can come back for any performance. The box office has tickets on the wall that were redeemed 20 and 30 years after the original performance was rained out.
(The Lost Colony has had some ‘name’ performers actually- Lynn Redgrave as QE1, Terrence Mann [who started there] and Andy Griffith [ditto] both came back after becoming famous, etc… Unfortunately their costume warehouses burned this year.)
[Madeline Kahn]
AAAAAASSShole!
[/Madeline Kahn]
I do remember loving this movie, but after 13years all I remember of it was Madeline Kahn’s brilliant delivery of that one word line. She was truly a genius.
Yes, twice. First was when I took my young son to a Bugs Bunny movie. It was more a documentary about cartoons than a cartoon itself. Got money back. Second time I was alone, in the theater, as a matter of fact, that was so well lit you could read a book. I complained to the usher about the non-dismal atmosphere when a horror movie was playing. The lights weren’t dimmed. I complained to the manager and got a pass for another show.
In that case, as has been said, you should be asking the movie studio for a refund. The movie is their product; they made it, and thus are the ones responsible for its quality.
The theater’s products are the showing of the film and the atmosphere in which it is shown. If the theater fails to deliver on either of these products (broken projector, disruptions during the film, etc.), that is when they are accountable for your refund.
As to the early exit refund, I don’t think the theater is under any ethical obligation to provide it – after all, they didn’t force you leave – but I can see where, from a customer service and PR/goodwill standpoint, it would make sense for them to do so. Still, if push ever came to shove and a theater denied someone the refund, I would have to support the theater’s side of the argument.
Last movie I went to, 30 minutes didn’t even get you to the opening credits. Dead fucking serious. Listed start time was 5:15, feature didn’t start until 5:45. :mad:
BION, there has been at least one class action lawsuit over the listed start/real start discrepancy.
Color me surprised that people would actually have the nerve to ask for their money back 'cos the film was pants.
If there were idiots ruining the movie with cellphone conversations, or the projector ate the film, fair enough. But in this day and age… all you have to do is go to RottenTomatoes or look at the paper before you drop your $8.50.
I guess I’m an oddball, because I see a movie in a theatre about twice a year, tops. And I’m pretty damned sure I want to see said movie before I go. I think it’s pretty entitled behavior to stomp one’s foot because Nick Cage is chewing the scenery in yet another movie. And I’ve never wanted to see a movie on opening night, ever. I can easily wait a day or a week. If you’re the type who would walk out of a movie because it was terrible, why not wait a day or two and get a sense of whether it’s worth seeing or not?
Worked two seasons at “Unto These Hills,” and the rain check policy was like a baseball game. You’d only get a rain check if you were rained out before X scene in the production.
Consequently, on nights where rain was threatening, the show was played at “rain tempo” – everything was tightened up, certain scenes were eliminated, all with the goal of making it to X scene before the heavens opened. There was a lighted “Rain Tempo” sign backstage that was turned on.
Now, whenever there’s a summer night with threatening storms or a drizzle that might turn into a downpour, I think, “This is a rain tempo night.”
If I buy something that sucks at Target I bring it back there for a refund, not the manufacturer. Same deal with the movie theater.
I can recall only one time when I got a “rain check” at a movie theater. The film was The Grifters, and there was a power outage. I came back the next day, and discovered that the power failure had been in the final scene:Lilly was in Roy’s room, but hadn’t hit him yet.
Almost, but not quite, IMHO. The movie theatre itself makes no guarantee of the movie’s quality, unlike retailers who warrant that the goods they sell are of merchantable quality.
If you buy a cyan coloured widget to go in your kitchen, and then you get home and discover that said widget clashes horribly with the curtains and the dishwasher and therefore looks terrible, that’s really your problem, not Target’s or the Manufacturers- provided the product is otherwise functioning as specified, of course.
Besides, what you think may be a steaming pile of horse manure may be another person’s idea of Teh Bestest Film Evar!!1!Eleventy!, which further complicates the whole refund thing.
The movie theatre kept up their end of the deal- they screened a movie, which you chose to go and see. Having said all that, if they show a totally different film, or the projector breaks down, or other stuff like that, then yes, you should be entitled to a refund- But not simply because you thought the acting in the film was wooden and the dialogue unengaging. YRMV, of course.
I’ve only asked for (and gotten) a refund once, because the movie was first interrupted by an accidental tripping of the smoke alarm, and then after returning to my seat they accidentally had advertisements projected over the top of the film image.
Coincidentally it was one of the crappiest movies I’ve ever seen anyway, Dungeons & Dragons, so I definitely deserved the refund any way you look at it.
I would certainly insist on a refund if I wanted to see The Aristocrats and was treated to The Aristocats instead.
Or vice-versa.
I’ve never asked for a refund if I walked out of a movie, but last night, during Atonement, I almost asked for a refund for the horrible popcorn I received.
Target will then send the defective item back to the supplier and get reimbursed for that. If a supplier has bad products all the time, Target can drop them. Theatres can’t do that. If a studio has a bad streak, and all of them do at one time or another, the theatre doesn’t stop playing their movies.
You can’t compare a work of art and a widget, one’s poor quality is obvious to all, for film/music/literature, it depends on personal taste. The better comparison would be to music or books- you can’t return a CD to Best Buy because Dylan went electric on this one and you don’t like it, or get a refund if you don’t like how the book ended, or started for that matter.
I also saw a warning like that for The Aristocrats. I also saw a woman walk up a ticket window and ask for a ticket to a show clearly marked “sold out” so clearly a sign won’t catch everyone.
I’ve never gotten refunds, but I’ve gotten plenty of free tickets because of technical problems like the sound being too soft/loud/out of sync, the film being horribly framed onscreen (and as a former projectionist it is all too obvious for me when that happens and I end up finding it difficult to concentrate on the film itself), the reels being out of sync (yes, one time I saw a film and noticed that reel 3 was played before reel 2 [I had seen the film previously]), and one time when there was a blackout of the entire theater. Took about 20 minutes for everything to come on again. Another time there was a fire alarm in the middle of the film. I have also gotten refunds when I have complained to the ushers/management about unruly people in the theater, which I do when they start acting up. One time there was an entire family with 4 or 5 kids who spent the first 10 minutes of the film running up and down the aisles, stamping all over the place. The theater was empty except for me and them and a few other scattered people so I stood it as long as I could and then left to tell management. No one ever came in to tell the family to behave so I ended up doing it myself which quieted them down for a little while. You better believe I asked for comp tickets after that one!
But it would never even occur to me to ask for a refund simply because I didn’t like a film. That’s all on me for choosing it in the first place. I have only ever walked out of one film, I don’t even remember the name of it, some independent one-word title film about math or time travel or something like that, and in that case it was a free screening anyhow so I wasn’t even out any money. I don’t go to just any movie, I’ll only see something if I really think I will like it.