NY Hairspray Screening Disaster- Page 4

[PhantomofASU]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:28am

The same thing almost happened in Arizona. I had the evite tickets and I show up at the theatre right after work only to find out that the theatre was all filled and we could turn in our passes for a future screening. At this point I was starting to get really mad because I was looking forward to this all day. I asked if I could get a pass to this movie and they it would be HIGHLY unlikely. And then I asked if the movie was in the Cine-Capri (its the largest movie theatre in the state of Arizona) and the manager said it wasnt. Which I thought was really dumb. So i didn't get to see it and I thought it was poorly managed. But i guess i'll just have to wait and see it when it opens on Friday.

[Anakela]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:33am

No clue how much, if anything, she had to do with tonight's screenings, but fyi this is the New Line publicity contact for Hairspray, at least according to the press releases:

Candice McDonough
[phone]
[e-mail]


Time Warner website- Hairspray press release

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:44am

Wowwwwww.

I was so put out this morning when my friend and I came to the conclusion that neither of us was a good enough driver to successfully get to the Pittsburgh waterfront, but now...it's quite the blessing in disguise. Of course now I have to wedge in a screening on Friday after work and before "Harry Potter" is released.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:51am

It's only like 4 days away anyway

Updated On: 7/17/07 at 12:51 AM

[sondhead]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:52am

Call [phone]. Press one, then spell out CEO Bob Shaye's last name to get his voicemail.
Updated On: 7/17/07 at 12:52 AM

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:54am

That was so unbelievably weak. Horrible experience. We were so looking foward to seeing it and waited from 5pm until 7pm when we found out the news. Not cool at all.

[Anakela]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:55am

Call [phone]. Press one, then spell out CEO Bill Shaye's last name to get his voicemail.

It's neither here nor there, but fyi his name is Robert Shaye.

[sondhead]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 1:02am

Fixed the original. Meant to put Bob, sorry.

[Parks]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 1:03am

Oh God, I had no idea that woman was dead. That's awful! My friend and I and a lady standing next to us thought she must have just had a seizure or something and we saw her get put onto the stretcher and taken to some kind of room or emergency stairwell... that really upsets me now . How awful...to have died standing in line for something she wasn't even going to get into. Somebody call New Line and tell them that. That should get a point across.

Seriously--that really does upset me though. Does anyone know what caused her death or what exactly happened?

Yeah, the free movie pass was nice though...went and saw Ratatouille with some friends. Pretty good movie.

[OnMyWay]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 1:29am

Someone already mentioned that the same thing happened in Kansas City, but I want to add on. We were told upon entering the theater that we should wait (with our evite passes) in a specific line. We waited for an hour before they told us they wouldn't honor the passes at all, even if there were extra seats. There was no manager there to assist us, only an assistant. I sure hope New Line gets an earful about this.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 1:58am

I'm tired and I'm pissed, so I will keep this relatively short.

I had planned well in advance to attend the NYC screening today. I Took off work early and hauled my skinny butt from lower Manhattan up to Lincoln Square and got on line at 3pm with my friends. We were easily a good 20 people back in line. We waited. We waited. We waited. Out of no where, a large group of people in Hairspray movie shirts and pins walks up, strolls past, and clusters in front of the theatre. The women behind us had apparently tried to see another screening of Hairspray, and they became very anxious because at the last screening, a group from carnicval cruise lines preempted everyone and took every seat. The E-vite seats said 7:300pm. The flyers that accompanied the Salon group said that they were going to a 7:00pm screening.
First there was chaos about what would happen. Was there one screening? Was there two? No one seemed to know and anyone you asked gave you a different answer.
Finally, ONE secrurity guard was sent out to deal with the entire grid-sized crowd.. We weren't told it was FULL. We were told that E-Vites were invalid. 100% invalid. The front of the line was told once. The guy said "If you have a problem, talk to New Line". It took them a LONG while to tell the 'rest' of the line. Then were were told that we should stay in line.. some people would be let in. So we waited. They sent out a little blonde woman to collect email addresses to be notified about futire screenings. Some compensation - give us your info, then do this again and let this happen again.
The best answer I was given, and it sounds like crap, was that the E-Vites were sent out because the company said that they wouldn't fill the theatre and then ended up filling it. I don't know.
While those who wanted to gave their info to the little woman, the theatre called the police and theys howed up, yelling over load speakers, and herding us all down the block like common criminals.
Very very VERY badly handled. I see it wasn't an isolated situation. At least other theatres were kinder to patrons. We were left outside with no info and had the cops set upon us for merely being present and waiting to get in on line.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 2:08am

Shameful. These people are not good at their jobs. They are turning off their customers. Someone needs to step up and take responsibility for the way they treated all of us tonight across the USA. I am still pissed as well. Wasted my day off from work for nothing.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 2:16am

It was VERY VERY badly handled in every way and the staff members were rude. The salon people as well were VERY snotty as well... and no one wanted to deal with it it. They all said to talk to someone else.

[Parks]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 2:24am

That's ridiculous. Ugh.

[DrTheatre]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 2:26am

With all these cities experiencing the same problem, I am starting to think that maybe this was the plan all along--just so word of mouth can build!

[Anna_Elizabeth]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 3:09am

Or was the evite an internet hoax? I actually went to the New Line website before printing the evite, hoping to find a link to it, but didn't find one. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now I'm beginning to wonder.

[EugLoven]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 3:09am

SAME STORY IN SAN FRANCISCO, AMC METREON THEATRES

Hundreds in line.
Some had waited hours ahead of time (I waited for two)

I knew something fishy was going on when I saw the 100+ party of hair-dressers showing up with their "official passes" for the 7PM show (versus our print-out 7:30PM passes).

The crowd took it really rough and wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Soon the question became: "What are you going to do with all these unhappy people?"

The poor AMC staff boor the brunt of the abuse (I'll admit, I was in there pissed off too). A manager from AMC came out and gave free general-movie passes to the crowd who stayed behind... so my friends and I saw RATATOUILLE instead. AMC was pissed because the free-tickets were on their dime.

The contact information for the
SF NewLine Cinema Event Organizer is:
Rebecca Robbins
415-834-1111 ext.607

CALL HER! They have our contact information (necessary information to fill-out online pass) if they end up refunding or something.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 3:14am

It seems by the time the movie opens, most people will have seen it at these free pre-screenings, what the hell!?
I want Hairspray to be a big fat hit and do well at the box office!
I saw it at a pre-screening and Im seeing it again with a few friends I know that haven't seen the pre-screenings yet!

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 3:19am

i was in LA and the black passes WERE NOT the only ones valid... i had a prinout and i was in the front of the line... from what i can tell, they were initially going to let in the black passes first but they actually let in the first few of us in the line (i think) that had evites... i'm not sure what happened after i got in the theater but when my friends and i went to get snacks and use the bathroom we saw some bad things out there... even though i was able to get in... i'm very sorry for what happened to other people... that must suck

[kyle.]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 3:33am

I drove over an hour with a friend for the Michigan screening. People were NOT pleased. Lots of older people who had driven in from far away (I know it sounds cheesy but it's true!)

It is not the fault of the theatres where the screenings were booked. It IS New Line's fault for the way the theatre management had to react to crowds of angry people in big cities. If New Line had not messed up, the theatres wouldn't have had to deal with any drama in the first place. I have attended many free movie screenings with no problems at all.

If the evite passes were invalid, the public should have been altered via the official New Line website, the official Hairspray website, and press releases could have easily been released to Broadway news websites altering fans. All you had to do was google "Hairspray Advanced Screening" and TONS of links to the evite site showed up. That is how I found the link again after losing the URL which I got off this very message board. A message which creators of the film read.

New Line messed up no matter how you look at it in my opinion. If it was fake they screwed us over by not letting us know. And if it was real they screwed us over by selling free screening seats to a hair company and not letting the general public know about it until they have shown up to the screening and waited in line.

Updated On: 7/17/07 at 03:33 AM

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 3:40am

They should all be fired. I wrote to some of those connected to the film but have not heard a word about tonight's fiasco. The publicity person from New Line (Catherine Mcdonough) wrote me saying she knew nothing about this and was "forwarding it on". I expect that I will never hear another word from them.

[HOUFlip04]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 4:25am

Same thing here in Houston. When I got to the theater around 6:45pm for a 7:30pm screening, they were already turning away people because the theater was already full with the people with the "black tickets" and their "client el" (sp?). The promotion people offered tickets to another movie...that I never heard of, so I just turned around and went to dinner.

Bad thing about it was that you had to pay $3 garage parking, if you couldn't find street parking. So a lot of people who got turned away already paid $3 to get there.

[Flaunt It]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 6:07am

Reading tis thread makes me laugh.

All this fuss over not being able to see a movie for free? Crowds that acted so insane the police had to be called in. Someone praising one woman as being fabulous for calling the theatre owners "F**king F*gs."

Katrina and 9/11 were a "disaster" ... let's keep it all in perspective. If this is the worst thing that happened to you all this week.. count your blessings!



Updated On: 7/17/07 at 06:07 AM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 6:40am

This is a Broadway Message Board, Flaunt It.

This is not a Major World Events Message Board.

In the small world that is the subject matter of this message board, this situation was a disaster for thousands of people across the country whose time was wasted by waiting in line for what ended up being a total joke on everyone.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 6:51am

^ Exactly. These people had every right to be pissed off. If I went and waited two hours to get into this movie only to find my pass was invalid, I'd be pissed off.