Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Wrong movie being shown makes the news AGAIN!

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Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 10-29-2008, 07:27 AM:

This is at least the third time in the past couple years I've heard of this making the news. This time it wasn't paired up, they switched the auditoriums at the last minute, but someone still should have caught it before the actual movie got on the screen.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705258573,00.html

'Musical' switched for 'Sex' in Megaplex mix-up
By Pat Reavy
Deseret News
Published: Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 12:24 a.m. MDT

SOUTH JORDAN — Some Utahns attending the weekend opening of Disney's biggest movie of the year were exposed to a little more than they were expecting.

Friday night, managers at the Megaplex Theatre at the District, 11400 South Bangerter Highway, switched one of the showings of "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" to a larger auditorium to accommodate more people. They forgot, however, to switch the movie that had previously been scheduled for the room.

So rather than the family-friendly, G-rated "High School Musical 3," the beginning of the very nonfamily-friendly R-rated "Sex Drive" came on the screen. The opening minutes of the movie include nudity.

"I could not carry my little children out before they were exposed to extremely vulgar and sexually explicit material," one parent complained in an e-mail to the Deseret News.

The film was stopped as soon as the mistake was realized. It was not known Tuesday how long the movie ran until it was turned off.

Megaplex spokesman Jeff Whipple said "Sex Drive" was only on the screen briefly.

Theater managers apologized to the audience and gave everyone free movie passes and concession vouchers. For future movies. Whipple said a policy of secondary confirmation and personal supervision by a theater manager will be required before a movie is shown.

The District Theatre was the 10th busiest in the nation for "High School Musical 3" ticket sales, Whipple said.

— Pat Reavy

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 10-29-2008, 09:21 AM:

Gee, the worst mistake I made recently was threading "W."
upside-down, and everyone thought they were watching "M"
[Big Grin]

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-29-2008, 09:35 AM:

I take it this was film and not digital? I would think film would be more prone to this kind of mistake than video, although even with video, a human can still hit the wrong title on a touch screen. Human error is our lot.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-29-2008, 09:56 AM:

quote: Jesse Skeen
"I could not carry my little children out before they were exposed to extremely vulgar and sexually explicit material," one parent complained in an e-mail to the Deseret News.

If these idiot parents would just not make a huge federal case out of it, their little darlings would be less traumatized. Cripes, just gather the kids up calmly, say "Oops, I think we're in the wrong theatre, kids!" And then say something to a manager calmly. Don't write letters to the freaking newspapers. The kids will forget it by the next day.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-29-2008, 12:18 PM:

Naah! It's more fun to launch a self-righteous campaign to ban all R-rated movies in the state of Utah. Let's bring back that company that edited out all the curse words and naughty body parts in movies. While we're at it, we need to have a good book burning too...oh wait. Americans don't read books! Nevermind.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-29-2008, 01:01 PM:

Yea, Heard that the LHM's District is all digital - prob still have some film backup though.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-29-2008, 01:05 PM:

I swear that R-rated movies used to be illegal in Utah at some point. I know it is illegal to remove all one's clothing simultaneously for any reason and also illegal to have fewer than 10 children.

Bobby, I do not read books. Much too sedentary (and contrary to popular opinion, reading books does not make one more intelligent or informed unless it is non-fiction). Instead, I am out saving the world.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 10-29-2008, 05:10 PM:

I am ANGRY [Mad]

and severely BOTHERED [Mad]

by this article.

I can hardly believe it.

They called High School Musical "Disney's biggest movie of the year".

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 10-29-2008, 05:24 PM:

Indeed, when we showed HSM3 the screams would have lead you to believe there was a rock concert going on...

Obviously someone at the theater is a moron for not putting HSM3 in the big house to begin with. I blame them.

I saw something like this before where the manager the night before made the call to move prints for the next day because the house allocations weren't a good fit, didn't leave a note, and the dumbass projectionist just started threading not noticing some of his prints had been moved...

Ouf...If people would just COMMUNICATE and PAY ATTENTION. OYE!

Posted by Laurie Higgins (Member # 4843) on 10-29-2008, 05:31 PM:

Sounds like downstairs forgot to mention it to upstairs, which has happened to me several times. It's also fun when they forget to tell you they want to do an interlock too.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 10-29-2008, 07:26 PM:

What!? They didn't read the managers mid?! How stupid of them! They're supposed to just do whatever the manager wants without having to be told!

Posted by Tristan Lane (Member # 1169) on 10-29-2008, 08:20 PM:

quote: Jesse Skeen
I could not carry my little children out before they were exposed to extremely vulgar and sexually explicit material," one parent complained in an e-mail to the Deseret News

The newspaper "Deseret News" is owned by a very large organization that Utah is famous for.

Had the movie been Pride and Glory, we probably wouldn't be reading about this right now.

I still fail to see why nudity is more offensive than violence. It makes me wonder if the parents are more traumatized than the children. As a kid, I never found it traumatic. Are the parents so scared of having "the talk" that they will avoid all reference to sex and nudity to avid it?

quote: Bobby Henderson
Let's bring back that company that edited out all the curse words and naughty body parts in movies.

Aahhhhh.... "Clean Flicks" Yes, I remember those video stores when I lived in Idaho. "Family Friendly" at the expense of the directors artistic choices.

Y'know, I never really liked the nudity at the Vatican.... I think they should paint over all of the frescos in the chapel.

EDIT: Wow... Clean Flicks is still there. The website is still up and has all of the selections listed. You can even get Anchorman in clean form. That should be a real knee slapper.

http://www.cleanflicks.com/movie/2848/

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 10-29-2008, 09:10 PM:

quote: Tristan Lane

I still fail to see why nudity is more offensive than violence. It makes me wonder if the parents are more traumatized than the children. As a kid, I never found it traumatic. Are the parents so scared of having "the talk" that they will avoid all reference to sex and nudity to avid it?

True, but that's an issue for the film censors...it's not relevant in this case. If they'd paid to see HSM3 and seen SAW V instead they'd be pretty pissed off too. I know I would be...and passes to another show would not placate me.

Mistakes happen, but that's unforgivable. I don't know what's in the start of Sex Drive, but I'll wager the 'nudity' isn't just someone topless...more likely someone bonking or the like. If I have my kids in to see the G rated HSM3 and that came on...I'd 1st get my kids out but advise the manager that I'd be back. When I did get back I'd expect heads to roll.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-29-2008, 09:13 PM:

quote: Dominic Espinosa
If people would just COMMUNICATE and PAY ATTENTION

..this isn't the first time that a form of miscommunication like this happen within the bowels of any LHM cinemas....called, too many chiefs and not enough indians.

What's really odd is that this incident happened on a Friday night, and the DesNews got around to published it on Tues morning ... In my book, that's old news that should have never been brought up.

..and how many times have cinemas forget to change their DTS discs when doing a dbl feature in a house and the leftover discs beging to play the 2nd movie (esp a Disney) and the soundtrack from the leftover discs begin to play and cuss words hits the screen....

Really, what is going on here to those who don't know about the LHM Megaplex Cinemas is that these are the most popular cinemas to attend a movie in the SLC valley.

Check out the grand TOUR to give you an idea on what really goes on within this company.

Larry H. Miller is one of the most successful auto dealer owners in this entire intermountain region and he started his business from the ground up to make it what it is today. He started in the cinema business in 1999 with the opening of the Jordan Commons 17 Giant Screen (which then had the 8/70 presentations) and with this location (of over 177000 sq ft of a building), took over the popularity of the entire valley to be entertained, satisfied in food, drink and going to the movie.

Sad thing about large and well-known complexes: they draw the media attention real bad since they are so carefully watched by all. And when they "fall in the mud puddle" so to say, the "media vultures" glom on to that in a heartbeat.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-29-2008, 10:04 PM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
..and how many times have cinemas forget to change their DTS discs when doing a dbl feature in a house and the leftover discs beging to play the 2nd movie (esp a Disney) and the soundtrack from the leftover discs begin to play and cuss words hits the screen....

That shouldn't be happening at all with any movie shown in DTS. If the DTS player has the wrong discs loaded the only thing the audience should hear is deafening silence, or more likely the backup analog track on the film print.

The first couple or so movies in DTS back in 1993 didn't have film ID data included in the time code. So it was possible to hear a velociraptor in Jurrasic Park roaring in the first reel of Heart and Souls if the wrong discs were loaded. DTS fixed that problem pretty quickly. It took movie studios nearly a year to figure out they shouldn't be attaching a DTS Digital Experience format trailer on every release print.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-29-2008, 10:45 PM:

I mentioned that it did happen to us one time: Some of the timecode on one film matched the info on this wrong disc and began to play bits from that one disc.

Talk about embarrassing.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 10-30-2008, 10:21 AM:

quote: Frank Angel
I take it this was film and not digital? I would think film would be more prone to this kind of mistake than video, although even with video, a human can still hit the wrong title on a touch screen

It is very easy to select the wrong show when running digital (especially as features can be kept for shows once a day, when with film the print would have gone elsewhere).

The doremi software also does not show the title on the playback screen until the play button is pressed. [at least it only takes seconds to select an alternate title]

Posted by Tristan Lane (Member # 1169) on 10-30-2008, 12:22 PM:

quote: Mark Hajducki
The doremi software also does not show the title on the playback screen until the play button is pressed. [at least it only takes seconds to select an alternate title]

I'm surprised Doremi hasn't fixed that yet! Luckily, the majority of the Doremi units out there (in the states) are running TCC which does display the title of whatever show or composition is selected.