NY Hairspray Screening Disaster- Page 6

[Flaunt It]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 11:12am

But they did honor the passes.. limited numbers of them. OH MY GOD... thats what is written on the entry form you voluntarily filled out.

[fxy2003cmu]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 11:15am

okay, but that didn't happen everywhere...in my area, the Detroit area, they said that all evite passes were invalid and no one with a pass got in no matter how long they were waiting. That's just not right.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 11:16am

That woman told me there was no 7:30 show and the 7:00 was filled.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 11:20am

From what I understand, and it's very limited since I didn't attend, that the passes were not being accepted. Also, even if Minnesota accepted them, that has nothing to do with New York. So even if it were a nationwide event, the fact that some locations accepted them does not exempt their liability in the locations that did not accept them.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 11:20am

11/11/05: Their PR people are NOT happy right now; I guarantee that. Any publicity is good publicity, but that's not the case with PR.

Has this really made it into the media?

[fnyboi88]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 11:51am

O well there is nothing we can do now, it's done and overwith. we just have to wait till Friday!

[elimeyer]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 11:57am

I just sent the following email to the New Line execs:

Dear New Line

A report on the Hairspray screening at the AMC on Broadway in NYC yesterday.

Two weeks ago I secured an Evite for a screening of Hairspray. After traveling for over an hour, my partner and I were in a line that went around the block, waiting to see one of my favorite Broadway shows translated to the big screen (and hoping my non-broadway partner would be won over and enjoy it as well).

Before we ever got to the door (after almost 2 hours of waiting), security came out and disbanded us, with NO explanation!!! Within 1 minute of that, the NYPD was there, two cars-four cops, and shouting at everyone to get off the sidewalks and leave. As if we were unruly, unlawful demonstrators or criminals!

To have AMC not even tell us there was a problem, but call the police to disband us BEFORE saying anything about an issue is ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS. But then, the way the Theater Manager and the New Line Rep handled the upset customers was atrocious. Rude, tough, and "nothing I can do about it New Line screwed up" attitude. No offer to make it up to us, no passes for another screening, just "NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT"!

We later found out that New Line made a mistake and announced two screenings, 7pm and 7:30 when apparently there was only ONE private screening for HAIRDRESERS??????????? Imagine how THAT went over with hundreds of Broadway fans who waited hours to see your film!

MOST of the people tossed to the side were saying things like, "I hope this film tanks" and "I will never go to another New Line Cinema Film again"

Not great PR folks, I am SURE that is not the intention of a Screening.

People are not complaining to you because they didn't get in fro free, the Broadway community went to these screenings to enjoy seeing Hairspray with OTHER Hairspray fans, to enjoy their company as well as their reaction to a long standing Broadway favorite. The same with other known favorites such as Harry Potter, or The Producers, etc, I am sure you get the point.

New Line has disappointed die hard fans who are the bread and butter of your word of mouth, and print, business (just check the message boards at www.broadwayworld.com to see the print reaction to this incident). As a footnote, I understand that this happened in MANY cities across the US. I cannot imagine how this happened, but New Line has made a lot of enemies in one fell swoop.

Thank you for listening.
A very disappointed fan,

[deadparrot]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:13pm

"But they did honor the passes.. limited numbers of them. OH MY GOD... thats what is written on the entry form you voluntarily filled out."

I wish you would read this thread more closely. No, in some cities, no matter when you got to the theatre, whether you were the first or the thousandth with an eVite, you were turned away. Only people with glossy black tickets were allowed in.

Does this matter in the scheme of things? Not really. But, to me, it seems fraudulent that the website instructed you to put in personal information to attain a ticket that they weren't going to honor in the first place. And if some people planned their evening around going to see Hairspray, they might be a little angry about it and might be inclined to post on a relevant message board.
Updated On: 7/17/07 at 12:13 PM

[artscallion]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:19pm

I agree that this was a bad move on New Line's part. Subjecting something to availability is one thing. The way this was handled is another.

What I find amusing, though, are the people this happened to who fought so hard to say that the possibly rigged ACL lottery was no big deal and was perfectly fair. This situation is an absolute paralell to that one. Suddenly, these folks are all able to see the unfairness of having the expectation of a certain chance pulled out from under them, at the simple expense of time wasted. Now because it was their time, it has value.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:25pm

actually no. a lottery taes 5 minutes and they still gave out seats. ALL lottery seats weren't pulled. his was a first come first serve, wait for HOURS, no admission was granted to ANYONE with the invite, and then being chased away by police. No similarity whatsoever.

[Fosse76]

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

"This situation is an absolute paralell to that one. Suddenly, these folks are all able to see the unfairness of having the expectation of a certain chance pulled out from under them, at the simple expense of time wasted. Now because it was their time, it has value."

It's not really the same thing though. At least with the lottery, which by the way, has never have been proven to have been rigged, they still do the random drawing. People do have the chance to win. And even if it were rigged, one rogue employee does not equal the deliberate fraud that occurred at the screenings, where the passes were issued as being valid, when in fact they weren't. And with a lottery, you are not giving out personal information. I believe you had to fill out your address for the Hairspray screening.

[artscallion]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:30pm

Yup, it's still amusing.

It's an absolute parallel in logic. The only difference is in the degree. So at what point do you draw the line of when too much time has been wasted? And how much can you whittle a chance away until it becomes unfair?

[finebydesign]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:31pm

What is ACL?

[OnMyWay]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:35pm

To those rude people who believe we are making too big a deal out of this,

I personally don't mind waiting a few more days to see the film. The $10 isn't going to kill me. What bothers me is the false advertising. It appears everyone who was turned away was treated rudely. I know I was. I think someone hit the nail on the head when they said this was a publicity stunt.

So, you can continue to insult us on this thread because you clearly have nothing better to do, or you can get a life and allow us to be upset for a day or two. Last night was by no means as terrible as a hurricane, but hundreds of people are ticked off and have reason to be. You can see that we are a very angry crowd, and you are lucky that we are angry at New Line and not you. So butt out.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:41pm

"But they did honor the passes.. limited numbers of them."

Flaunt It, read the thread. They did honor the passes but only in SOME cities.

[broadwayguy2]

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

yes. Here, in NYC, we were told not that the screening was full, but that out passes were completely and 100% invalid. As if they were forgeries.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:46pm

To make matters worse, a lot of people gave out their personal information just to get these passes.

[broadwayguy2]

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

exactly! Then after we were turned away and threatened, they had the nerve to ask for it again!
Updated On: 7/17/07 at 12:52 PM

[DottieD'Luscia]

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

I sent an e-mail to the three parties listed on this thread for New Line. The one to "scooter" came back as undeliverable. I got an out-response from another saying she was out of the office. Who knows what kind of response people will get.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 12:59pm

"It's an absolute parallel in logic. The only difference is in the degree. So at what point do you draw the line of when too much time has been wasted? And how much can you whittle a chance away until it becomes unfair?"

It's not a parallel. If they had started to accept the printed passes AFTER allowing the salon passes entry would it then be parallel, and in which case people would have limited complaints. As it is, ALL the passes, even the ones issued to Sebastian, said exactly the same thing. It's that they decided, at the last minute, to only accept the Sebastian passes. NOne of the wording on any of the passes allow for that type of exclusion.
Updated On: 7/17/07 at 12:59 PM

[Wildcard]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 1:01pm

I didn't log on last night after I had gotten home but I'm sad to see that this has happened across the country. I had arrived at the screening in Portland around 5pm and so was near the start of the line. Like most of you, I was wondering why the other people in line had black tickets from Sebastian. I talked to one of the other people in line and she said that most of the people in line were probably salon owners or stylists. Anyway, once the line started moving at 7pm, a theater representative started going down the line asking who had internet passes. They said they were counterfeit and would not be allowed in.

There were only two other people ahead of me with the evite pass and I noticed they had been made to wait at the side of the line. When it was my turn, I asked what was wrong with our tickets. They said that WildAboutMovies.com publicized the screenings and handed out fake passes. I knew about what WildAboutMovies had done since I had received their email as well but since I already had my pass from the evite, I didn't really look into it. The theater said they will let us in after they let all the salon people in. So anyway, I said that I didn't get my pass from WildAboutMovies and got mine from New Line. I showed them the link on the bottom of the pass and it led to the HairsprayMovie.com address. I said if this was fake, why would it have come from the official website of the movie.

So they called the two other people waiting and looked at their passes. Theirs said the hairspray website as well. After a little bit of convincing (or maybe they were afraid they would get a riot), they let us in without much of a wait. We then went through security, getting wanded and all, and took our seats. Eventually people flooded in the theater. It was full but not packed.

This whole affair dampened the spirit of the evening but at least I got to see it. New Line even advertised the evites through their myspace site so it's so unfortunate many other fans didn't get to see it. However, it'll be worth the wait for those who didn't see it the first time. I loved this movie more than Dreamgirls and Chicago (and i enjoyed those two movies immensely in the first place). I'll be seeing this movie again with the rest of you guys when it opens in theaters.

[cubanpab]

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

probably no response at all

[JP2]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 1:11pm

It's been said before, but I'll say it again to the people who don't seem to get it and think we're making an unwarranted fuss..

For the people who patiantly waited for the NYC screening, we were ALL turned down. No, it wasn't a first come first serve basis, like the passes suggested. We were COMPLETELY turned down and out e-vite passes were deemed invalid.
Updated On: 7/17/07 at 01:11 PM

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 1:13pm

It's very strange that some theatres in some cities honored the eVite passes without a second thought, and other people were given the blanket statement that the eVites were "invalid." I can understand how confusing and frustrating that must be (I'm certainly confused by it!)---do you think someone used the term "invalid" when a better way to explain it might have been, "Due to the large turnout and the number of people with valid (glossy black) passes exceeds the number of seats available, the printed out eVites will unfortunately not be able to be honored"? While it's truly an unfortunate situation, a little customer service can go a long way. People wouldn't be so livid if they were shown some common courtesy, or given some sort of explanation.

At the Minneapolis screening, I saw both the glossy black tickets and the printed out eVites, and they didn't appear to differentiate between the two in terms of admitting people. Then again, it wasn't an enormous turnout---it was a Monday evening at a suburban theatre. Had there been a huge line wrapping around the building, it might've been another story...

[JP2]

Posted: 7/17/07 at 1:19pm

Honestly, no.

The AMC theater where the screening was being held is one of the Largest theaters in the City. I mean, it's frickin' huge... the theaters even have balconies. There definitely would have been room.

We were told that only people with those specific tickets were going to be allowed to enter and that the screening was private.
Updated On: 7/17/07 at 01:19 PM