LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- In a rare marketing ploy, the No. 2 U.S. movie theater chain,
AMC Entertainment, is offering a money-back guarantee for boxing picture "Cinderella Man," hoping to boost interest in the struggling film amid a record box-office slump.
Advertisements offering on-the-spot refunds to AMC patrons unhappy with the film began running June 24 in newspapers and on the exhibitor's Web site (
www.amctheatres.com), AMC spokeswoman Pam Blase said Tuesday.
The ads, welcomed by the film's distributor, Universal Pictures, say in part: "AMC believes Cinderella Man is one of the finest motion pictures of the year!"
Blase said AMC provides occasional rebates to dissatisfied moviegoers on a case-by-case basis. But the "Cinderella Man" offer marks the exhibitor's first money-back guarantee since "Mystic Pizza," Julia Robert's breakout 1988 film.
"This is highly unusual," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking service Exhibitor Relations Inc. "That's putting your money where your mouth is."
The AMC promotion is perhaps the most eye-catching step taken by exhibitors in recent weeks to shake up sluggish movie admissions, which some industry observers have attributed in part to a string of films widely regarded as subpar.
The major studios and theater owners have now posted 18 straight weekends of year-to-year declines in ticket sales, the longest slump since analysts began keeping detailed box office tallies.
"If there's a question about the quality of movies that are being shown right now, here is a movie that AMC would like to really tout as very high caliber," Blase said.
Starring Russell Crowe as the Depression-era boxing hero Jim Braddock, "Cinderella Man" has received generally favorable reviews but fallen flat at the box office.
The movie, which cost a reported $88 million to make, opened in fourth place the weekend of June 3-5 and has grossed a lackluster $49.8 million through its fourth weekend.
Executives at Universal, a unit of General Electric Co. , have acknowledged they took a gamble releasing a period drama aimed at adult moviegoers early in a summer movie season awash in high-octane popcorn fare targeting younger audiences.
Conventional wisdom holds that such films have a better chance in mid- to late-summer, when older filmgoers are looking for a break from blockbusters.
"We took a risk, and this time period clearly didn't work," Universal spokesman Paul Pflug told Reuters, adding that the studio is considering re-releasing the picture in the fall, closer to Oscar season.
Blase said the AMC has not decided how much longer to keep "Cinderella Man" in theaters, a decision that Universal said was up to individual exhibitors at this point.
The number of refunds requested since the promotion began has been "minuscule," but no figures were yet available, Blase said. Nor was there any way to tell whether admissions to "Cinderella Man" have risen since the offer began, she said.
The AMC promotion comes days after the privately held exhibitor announced plans to acquire its next-largest rival, Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp. The newly merged venture will remain the No. 2 U.S. theater chain with about 5,900 movie screens in 450 venues.
