Free movie makes for unhappy customers

Last night I went to a screening of Million Dollar Baby. For some reason, the actual film wasn't at the theatre when we got there. Something about it coming from Hollywood and FedEx messing up and it was arriving by courier and blah blah blah. It was supposed to start at 7:30, but it ended up starting around 8:40. Now, this movie was free. Once they told us the film wouldn't be arriving until 8:00, I knew I could chose to leave, and it's not like I would have lost any money spent on tickets, just some time. I decided I'd wait until 9:00, and that would be my cutoff. I wasn't happy it was late, but I also understood it was the studio's fault, not the theatre's.

Plenty of people did not understand this. They were furious with the theatre, saying they should have made sure the film was there before. Really, screenings are arranged by studios, not theatres. Theatres just give them space to show it, and, you know, take your money for concessions. Plus, it was FREE. What did they want the theatre to give them? I think in the end the theatre did give movie passes to anyone who left, which was probably a good consumer relations move on their part, but not really necessary.

The movie turned out to be really good, actually. It was the second screening of this movie, and I had skipped the first, because I wasn't super interested in a boxing movie. I only decided to go last night because I was planning on going to a different screening which got cancelled. There were some scenes where I had to close my eyes and ears, but I'd still recommend it to everyone, including people who don't like boxing or other sports-related movies.