Love Our Movie — or Your Money Back!
September 26 -- We've seen all kinds of giveaways intended to lure folks out to the movies, but an art-house flick that's divided even critics who usually love this stuff is going to new extremes by offering audiences their money back if it fails to satisfy.
The Lars von Trier musical Dancer in the Dark won the coveted Palme d'Or prize and garnered singer and first-time actress Björk a Best Actress trophy at this year's Cannes Film Festival, but it has received mixed reviews from critics and audiences following a limited release Sept. 15 in London's West End and Scotland. So, to show its support for the flick, U.K. film company FilmFour is offering moviegoers a money-back guarantee when the pic goes into general release on 37 screens across the United Kingdom and Ireland on Friday.
"If you go to see Dancer in the Dark this Friday, the 29th of September, and decide, having watched the film for at least 30 minutes, that the experience was not worth the price of your ticket, the cinema manager will refund your money to you," Peter Buckingham of FilmFour promised. The special incentive is only being offered on opening night, however.
Dancer in the Dark, which made its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival this past Friday, enjoyed a box-office gross of $91,000 for the two days of its opening weekend on just three American screens. The film, which co-stars Gallic legend Catherine Deneuve, opens in Los Angeles on Oct. 6 and in additional U.S. cities on Oct. 20.
We'll see if this kind of ticket-sales-boosting trend is picked up for other hard-to-market films and if the offer of an essentially free movie manages to outweigh audience reluctance to check out more experimental film fare.
Related Stories
ABC News Live