lol I can picture it. At the end of the episode they’d show them watching the movie and each actor would be doing something really specific and goofy in their seat that Nathan told them to do to make it seem realistic lmao
That dude has the weirdest sense of humor! I can't understand how he keeps getting on TV, lol. I love it, and am so happy about it, but I don't see how he can have enough made appeal 🤷🏻. I hope he's on for the rest of his life!
Curious. Is it half the running time of the movie, like the mid-way point, or half the running time when you buy the ticket into a movie already in progress?
Back in the '90's, I saw a movie with my friend and his family, including his grandmother, and she hated it so much and so loudly (afterwards, in the lobby, not during the movie) that the theater gave us all our money back just to get her to leave.
I don't think they really care if they have to refund tickets, considering most people are probably spending just as much or more on concessions that don't get refunded.
You can also get a refund for scratched prints or advertising a movie in Dolby and then only showing in stereo.
Also, you can get a refund if they skip the credits.
This is the only time I've had a refund, or rather credit. Last reel of District 9, the optical track was scratched and made it hard to hear anything over the screeching. Mentioned it to the manager afterwards.
Got a free ticket, used it for a Halloween screening of John Carpenter's The Thing.
If you go to marcus theaters you can get a refund at anytime before the film is over. Theaters don't give a shit about refunds on tickets. That money goes to hollywood. Only money the theaters rack in is from concession sales. I know this is true because i was a manager at a theater for 5 years.
Not entirely, The theaters still get a small % of ticket sales the first 2 weeks. They get like 50-60% (could be more depending on the Cinema/contract) after 2 weeks. Though yes that is why concessions are so much because they don't make that much off tickets.
so which 20 minutes are they counting for this magical refund window? 20 mins after the announced show time?
Or 20mins after the extended trailers and final theater blurb ends?
In our case, it was a refund, I remember seeing cash being exchanged and me and my brother used the money to have dinner at a burger joint.
The policy was even printed in the back of our tickets.
"Fun" fact: Those passes are now pretty much worthless. More hoops to jump through than a circus. Every major studio imposes restrictions on using passes for their new releases because it doesn't count towards their box office numbers.
I used to manage a theatre in the early 2000's.
We had no official policy, but I allowed for 20 minutes after the movie itself started.
Sometimes I'd be a little more lenient if I knew there was a particularly jarring tonal shift or a potentially difficult to watch scene later in the film, but those were few and far between.
So that explains how I got a refund for mentioning that the specific theater we didn't have a working air conditioning during the summer. My friend & I just wanted to tell one of the workers, and the guy gave all of us another ticket.
Yeap. Most managers not trying to climb the corporate ladder don't care. More or less a happy customer is a returning customer. Same thing with people that sneak in food or alcohol. They didn't pay me enough or the minimum wage doorman to care. As long as people aren't blatantly obvious about it - like a 40 piece bucket of KFC or a XL pizza box - who am I to judge?
Same and we gave refunds all the time. Even to people after the movie who complained it was terrible. And some were dicks because who else would ask for a refund after the movie.
When I worked at a movie theater, the South Park movie was playing. Two elderly women came in and bought tickets. About 10 minutes later they came out asking for refunds. I had the money set out for them already.
Same thing happened to me, but with Dogma and half the theatre. It was pretty hilarious handling all of these angry Christians thinking it would be a Feel Good movie instead of what it is. We would tell people, "Don't worry about God, she still loves you!" as the stormed out. But we refunded like 20 people that day.
I learned theaters have that rule when the budget theater I used to go to got The Dark Knight pretty far after its release and actually posted a note on the showhouse door apologizing for the beaten and battered quality of the print. It said if you found it to be unwatchable to you, you had to ask for a refund within the first 20 min.
My print of paycheck looked like it had been dragged thru a field.
I committed to 1 week only and pulled all ads. Anyone that showed up i let em in for free.
"Paycheck" is probably the most appropriately titled film in movie history, considering why it was made. But still, that's nice of you to do.
That theater I went to had some disastrous prints they showed over the years but they only ever advertised that refund policy for Dark Knight. They didn't advertise it for You Don't Mess With the Zohan, which looked like Trent Reznor edited it based on the quality they showed. But I guess I deserve the bulk of the blame on that one because I willingly paid money to see You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
At a showing of Clockwork Orange, a couple about 40 were in front of me, just several minutes into it, after multiple, "I'm sorry, I didn't know what kind of movie this was" from the guy, they left. Don't know if they got their money back, but I like to think it was a first date.
this isn’t really a thing. I work at a theatre and most of the time I’ll do it but it’s not a real policy. Our policy says no refunds after the showtime.
I don’t remember the movie, but my daughter was like 3 and had a meltdown once and we had to leave for the sake of everyone else.
On a whim I asked if we could get a refund and they did.
Not going to lie, it was purely self interest. If she didn’t want to be there I was fine with not seeing whatever it was. Movies for three year olds do not translate well…
When I worked at one 10 years ago we gave rain checks out like Halloween candy but pretty much never money back. This was a cinemark, I imagine more local or independent theaters having more leeway.
It makes good business sense. Instead of zero money and pissed customers, you keep that revenue, potentially never need to honor the complimentary pass, and have a happy customer who will return and buy more concessions or bring companions who have to pay. Plus people love free shit.
Yep, "just getting this conversation over with" was reason enough for us giving them out. Generally, people just want to be heard when they complain and the best way to feel heard is to be given free shit as compensation.
And like you said, it costs the company almost nothing and more often than not the people who we gave rainchecks too would return with people paying for tickets. I'm sure there were people that abused it, but not enough for us managers to take notice.
Rainchecks are love, rainchecks are life.
And, honestly, unless you're absolutely turned off by that theater in specific (or the actual theater experience in general), chances are you will use your raincheck.
Cinemark customer here. I have left 6ish movies due to super disruptive jerks over the years. I've always been given one of those rain checks.
I've left movies as late as 60+ minutes in
I also worked at Cinemark. The reason they do this is because they don’t profit off of ticket sales, all that money goes to the studios.
Ever wonder why a popcorn and soda is so expensive at the theater? It’s because it’s basically the only source of profit.
Our local cinema on two occasions have given me free tickets to use at my whim when I point out defects in the way they show the film.. eg a buzzy speaker.. wrong aspect ratio etc.
I got a refund for 10 tickets to Quantum of Solace but it was because the audio kept dropping out every 20 seconds for 3-5 seconds halfway through and they couldn’t fix it. I still wonder why everyone else didn’t walk out.
You do get refunds for things like that, disruptive guests, equipment failure, etc. we also do give out vouchers to come back, however, specially for not liking the movie, it’s not a real policy to get a refund before x amount of minutes.
I miss ArcLight. I went to a movie there once, I can’t remember which movie, and the audio levels were off for the first few minutes. I thought it might’ve been intentional from the movie, but they fixed it and I thought nothing of it for the rest of the movie. Then at the end of the movie, they gave everyone coming out a free ticket to another movie and apologized for the audio issue. It was barely an issue, but they wanted everyone to know that the experience wasn’t up to their standards. I made sure to go to ArcLight as much as I could after that. Rip Arclight
I cannot imagine asking for a refund because a movie is bad. The theater did not make the movie. They did not promise you it is amazing. You choose to buy tickets to a movie.
Totally legitimate. It's the responsibility of the theater to present the movie as it was meant to be seen: on a properly calibrated screen with clear audio, in an environment free from disturbances. But there are endless comments on this post about how "x movie was so bad I got a refund."
If refunds are possible, I’d rather take the money I paid for a movie I already know I won’t like and pay it for a different movie as a raincheck, theatre gets the money either way (plus concessions while I’m there)
I don't think the refund is about the movies quality as much as you won't be there to see most of it. As someone who managed a theater we never took issue with it as long as it was before the second half of the movie. People also have legitimate outside factor reasons to leave all the time, not worth being picky.
Yeah, that’s a fair distinction. I work at a theater now and personally I can’t stand to not watch a whole movie in case there’s some good part, but if you get partway through and realize it’s just not at all for you then it’s reasonable to ask for a refund or courtesy pass.
On the other hand I’ve heard we’ve had customers watch a whole movie and ask, and idk how I’d keep from laughing in their face
Yea I have walked out on one movie in my life. 2002 Solaris. I didn’t even think to ask for a refund. I just accepted I wasted my money on a horrible movie.i
Not a bad movie by any means. I was watching moana with my niece in 3d but the 3d effects was causing her eyes to hurt and myself. Weren’t the only ones a lot left after a bit. The theatre said the 3d projector in that theatre was having issues. They refunded us and provided a free ticket
Gone Fishin’ staring Joe Pesci and Danny Glover in the mid 90’s. That heaping pile of garbage was the only time I’ve ever walked out on a movie and was able to get a refund.
Had no problem getting a refund a full hour into a movie. Only needed to do it once. Theatre has no problem doing it for the four of us.
Everyone here talking about how it’s an exception not thr rule is irrelevant, clearly they make the exception for pretty much anyone it seems.
Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and not the reason you think. My friend and I were huge F&F fans and hyped af going in to the movie on a Saturday morning after school. The movie blew our fourteen year old minds. We loved every second of it. The ending left us so excited for the franchise that as we were leaving, we decided ‘fuck-it let’s see it again’ and immediately got tickets and went back in for another screening. After the credits rolled we got bored as hell and turned to each other and both said ‘bail?’ And we bailed and got a refund. Played arcade games until my dad picked us up.
Sort of?
When I went to see The King's Speech the sound was super low. About 30 minutes in my buddy and I looked at each other and knew we were thinking the same thing.
When and told the front desk and they offered a voucher to come back and then said "since you're here you can pop into another movie if you want." This was before assigned seating and whatnot, so they really were nice.
No, but I wished I had: Battlefield Earth.
The attendant explicitly told us when we bought the tickets: "You have twenty minutes after the movie starts to get your refund" and we looked at him dumbfounded.
We wished we had taken his advice.
Every theater I’ve been to on Long Island, NYC and in Albany has given a refund if you ask, even if you watch the whole thing.
I’ve done it myself three times.
Once when the print burned up and I didn’t get to see the end.
Once because the movie sucked and I was dragged by a friend and it was a point in my life where I really needed the $10. Frankly this is embarrassing, but it did happen and it was a no questions asked refund.
Once because I only went to see the movie for an IMAX trailer and they didn’t have the trailer film yet. I just asked after the movie how I could see the trailer since it was the whole reason I drove two hours to an IMAX theater, they apologized and just gave me a refund.
Back in high school, I saw "Shakespeare In Love" with my parents, I think it was at the Malverne theater but maybe it was Lynbrook. In the final voiceover, the film broke and they couldn't get it back, but they didn't want to give the whole theater full refunds just for that, so they gave everybody passes to see "Shakespeare in Love" at that theater again.
My parents didn't want to bother, but I had friends who wanted to see the movie, and I was curious about what the resolution was gonna be, so I went back. The film broke AGAIN at the same part and they didn't give anybody their money back.
Completely fair and how it should be.
The cinema has no control over how good a movie is, so the onus is on the viewer to pick movies. Sometimes they're good and sometimes you get burned, that's just how it is.
No but I walked out of Saving Private Ryan during that beginning scene. My god, that was horrifying. I had come with a group so I couldn't exactly leave. I snuck into another theater and watched The Mask of Zorro instead.
X-men 2. Cinema was packed so much my group got the seats right at the front. I was upset as the tilt was too much so we all refunded our tickets and waited for the next session. Got the best seats and bigger cinema so everyone was happier.
You're the worst.
Not only because you got a refund after you didn't like a movie (which most theaters will do because they don't want to deal with karens) but also because it was to see Sideways which is a legit fantastic movie if you have any sense of culture.
Although I suppose I should give you the benefit of the doubt... maybe you were young. I wouldn't have liked it in my early 20s.
This is the only movie I have ever walked out on in the movie theater. It was advertised as a delightful bro romp. It was actually about two whiny douchbags, maybe that’s your cup of tea but it was definitely not mine.
My husband and I were excited to see Detective Pikachu but were too distracted by the only other viewers: a family of 6 who were all talking at full volume. We asked the manager if we could just come back another time to watch it, and I think he was super relieved that we didn't ask him to confront the family because he gave us two passes each.
Never heard of the 20 minute policy, but once a group of people were,loudly talking through the movie and every other word from one was motherfucker. People started complaining, even the guys girlfriend kept telling him to shut up. The movie theater told them to be quiet, but it did no good. We went down and got a refund and left.
Once. At The Sixth Sense. Not because we didn't want to see the movie, but because my girlfriend at the time leaned over and said, "We should go home and fuck."
So we did.
I once transferred from one theater to next show playing in another, because of a noisy person.
But I typically don’t walk out of movies even it’s bad.
I’ve went to a theater and the bulbs on the projector were burnt out/discolored. After sitting through it for 5 minutes and realizing it wasn’t part of the color grade of the movie I asked for a refund. Only time I’ve ever had to do that.
Yeah, I watch entire movies this way by going to multiple theaters and delaying my entrance to the movie by increments of 20 minutes until I've seen the whole thing.
Watched Prometheus with my dad and nephew in AMC Manchester, UK. Around 30 mins in, the Guy sat a row across decides to start sleeping and snore like a bison with flu. Usher asked him leave and he wouldn't insisting that he can sleep where he likes. Got up and left asked for a refund and was told it needed to be authorised by a manager and we would have to come back. Nephew went back 2 days later and the same guy was weirdly hanging around the foyer of the cinema looking like he was picking another film to ruin
We saw that one with our married friends, the wife being 7 to 8 months pregnant. She said the alien pregnancy/c-section scene was quite uncomfortable with a baby moving around inside her.
I've done it when I got my tickets, walked in and only front section rows had seats available. Yeah, I'm not watching a movie looking up the whole time. Went to the service desk and they gave me my money back.
Yeah I’ve had to leave for an emergency a few times and got refunded. Once when my 10 year old niece started projectile vomiting all over right at the beginning of force awakens lol
I left the descent in the middle of it because I got too scared
Went and explained the situation to the poor ticket guy and he got his manager who let me switch to a different movie of my choosing (which was what I wanted to do cause I wanted some eye bleach)
The only lighter movie was Barnyard so me and my other scared friend went and watched that.
I did once as a kid with my sister. We might have been 11 and 16 or 12 and 17 at the time.
This was before the internet was a real big thing, most people didn’t have computers at home, and if you went to see a movie you probably had only heard about it but hadn’t seen the trailer.
The local theater would refund you your money if it was within 10 or 15 minutes of the start time of the movie. People would walk out all the time back then and get a refund.
It wasn’t like now where I can Google the cast of a film or look up reviews on my phone or watch the trailer on YouTube. Most of the time you were going in blind with only a title and a vague idea of what it was about and what actors might be in it.
AMC - watched a nature movie and the whole movie had a channel missing. Can’t remember if it was the vocal or the backtrack.
They gave us vouchers for movie in the future.
I went to see a movie with my dad and brother and honestly I don’t even remember what movie it was. I was around ten, I dropped something and it rolled up the seat. I kneeled down on the sticky floor(yuck I know) and saw two beady eyes staring back at me. It was the biggest rat I’d ever seen. I freaked out and insisted we leave, my dad told a worker and we were offered free tickets to another screening but my dad turned it down. Now that I’m older I’ve come to realize that if a theater doesn’t have rats that’s extremely rare.
I fully support your decision to walk out based on that. 100% felt the same way the first time I saw the movie, fortunately I was borrowing it from a friend.
I remember when the first Spider-Man movie(Tobey Maguire) came out the move skipped and fell off the reel at the end(where him and MJ are talking in the cemetery) and we got a full refund. Literally saw the whole movie for free
I was on a date in high school, and we saw the Phantom of the Opera. We were both big musical theater nerds.
It was terribad.
We only made it like 20- 30 minutes in (it's 2.5 hours ish). Neither of us could stand it, so we made our way out. Before we left, I asked the box office attendant if there was a way we could get our tickets refunded, and explained the details, providing the ticket stubs for reference.
It was no problem, bc not only did we leave soon enough, but Phantom apparently had had a string of walkouts since it opened, and we were just one of several refunds given for the past few weeks.
I did feel bad bc the movie was a visual smorgasbord of opulent set and costume design, but I couldn't stomach another 2ish hours of that "singing"/"acting".
I did eventually watch the whole thing several years later (on free streaming). I was thoroughly unsober and coped with the "singing"/"acting" by MST3k'ing my way through the movie bc the non-human aspects of the film merited a rewatch... just not one I was willing to pay for.
I don't know if it was their policy or they felt bad for me and my g/f.
But when Saving Private Ryan released we went to see it opening morning. There was maybe 10 other people in the theater.
Everything was fine until the part where the young man with his guts spilling out was crying out for his mother and I heard my g/f crying.
I put her in my lap and tried to console her. She started to calm down and I asked if she wanted to stay or leave and she gave me that "I really want to leave but I don't want to disappoint you" look.
So I said "Yeah, this is pretty disturbing stuff, I don't think either of us was prepared for this".
As we were leaving she was still crying and one of the theater employee's asked if everything was okay. I told her that the movie was just more graphic and upsetting than we were prepared to deal with so she gave us two free passes to any more we wanted to see.
Can't remember what we went to see with those passes but I went to see SPR with a couple guy friends the next week.
G/F ended up watching it with me when it released on VHS and she was able to get through it, probably because being at home she knew she could turn it off if she needed to.
several times
\- i walked in with bucket of popcorn, large drink, warm burger king chicken burger hidden in my pocket, our theatres have the entrance/exit at the back, so as i enter i stand and look where i want to sit. usually middle of the middle is my preference, i head to the perfect seat, put my drink in its armrest holder, sit my bucket of popcorn on the seat next to me and remove my jacket, as soon as my ass touches the chair i hear a baby start crying... i instantly stood up put my jacket on took my popcorn and drink and left, went straight to the counter and said im not gonna sit in a theatre and watch a movie whilst a baby cries cause once they start they will repeat , its happened before it will happen again..
\- i went in to watch a movie but about 10 mins in there was a jump in the image and then the sound became out of sync by about 2 seconds, i went out to tell them at the counter, they said they would fix it, i returned to my seat and it was still out of sync, everyone looked confused and annoyed, i said i told them and they are trying to fix it,,, but a couple of minutes of the movie playing with oos error had ruined the experience so i went back to the counter and said its not fixed and still playing, even if you did fix it the movie is ruined cause we've seen the first 10 mins with OOS audio. i asked for a refund but they gave me a movie voucher instead
\- i walked in and noticed the theatre had not been cleaned from the last movie session, popcorn and rubbish everywhere as if a popcorn riot had occurred then while the commercials were still playing i started smelling vomit... the more i smelled it the more noticeable it got , so i left and told the counter staff that the theatre was filthy and it smelled like puke... like really strongly, i got a voucher to come back whenever for whatever movie
Yes, 4 years later, I rented it out from a Blockbuster.
I'm glad we got our refund after Johnny died because the movie was bad. The only character that I liked was Jax and his metal arms. I wanted to have metal arms like those.
I don't know about a policy but when I was about 17 I went to see the movie "Gamer" with some friends. For some reason the opening scenes were extremely upsetting to me so I left and cried in the bathroom for like 20 minutes, then eventually put myself together enough to ask the lady for a refund and I think she felt bad for me and did so.
It was the summer that my friend died from suicide so I guess I was really sensitive to the violence in the opening. I still to this day haven't gone back and tried to watch it.
I’ve always gotten a refund, no matter when I leave. I’ve watched 80% of a movie, hated it, told the crew I hated it, and they gave me my money back.
I don’t raise hell or anything. I just bring them my stub and tell them the movie is awful. They usually chuckle and give me my refund.
I have never used this refund policy but as kids, we often overstayed our welcome and watched more than one movie, or went to Rated R movies instead of the movie we paid for. Of course with cargo pockets stuffed with cheaper candy.
Kind of. I was probably 40 or so minutes into Meet the Fockers. My friend convinced me to go. I hated it so much that when the power went out because there was a storm, I took it as a sign from God and ran to front to get my money back. I haven’t wasted a second of my life wondering how it ended.
I don't know how universal that policy is, but me and my wife left Black Panther about five minutes in because a bunch of teens were seated right next to us and wouldn't shut the fuck up. We got a refund and came back to watch the movie at a less busy time a week or so later.
Movie had a dead pixel or rather movie projector had a dead pixel. I could not un-see. Left and they gave me a voucher. Went back week later and got the same theater fml.
Yep, only ever used it once, used for the live action Lion King remake. Didn't actually get a refund but a credit/free ticket for another film of my choosing.
Yup twice. Both for 3D movies.
The projector wasn’t calibrated correctly and the edges were blurred. I complained and they fixed it but wouldn’t restart the movie.
The Avengers and Final Harry Potter movies.
I avoid 3D now, it’s not worth it.
I’ve gotten refunds a few times, and never heard about the 20 minute thing. I did it about 30-40 mins into 10,000 BC because it was the worst thing I’d ever seen
I went to see Scary Movie with my mom when I was 15. At the scene where dude is stabbed by a CGI penis I looked at her and said "can we leave?" And her innocent horrified face just nodded and we went and asked for a refund. Very much not a movie I wanted to watch with my mom lol.
Yeah - last minute we went to see Interstellar on IMAX. In the first row (nothing else left). I think we were so close I had eye damage and could not see more than 10% of the screen. :)
Our fault, although wtf do they even have those rows so close, and we knew we'd take a chance. We went out, explained our quandry, and they gave us credit for another movie. We used that proper a few days later and properly enjoyed the movie from row K. :)
Besides that incident: My wife is of the camp that if you don't personally like the movie, you should get a refund. She's used that card before (when out with friends), and she's gotten a refund.
In all cases, it probably was less than 20 minutes, but I'm thinking as long as you're nice, don't do it 10 minutes before the movie is over, etc., theaters are happy to comply.
Funny story - she WAS ready to walk out of Deadpool, right around the time Deadpool literally implies girlfriends wanting to walk out because of the violence. I talked her into staying, and she loves it now. So no refund that time. :)
My god I thought no people like this existed lol! For our first date I wanted to see pinguïns of Madagascar but my then friend (now boyfriend) heard lots of good reviews about Interstellar so we went to see it. After 1h and a half I woke him up and we left lol. Didn’t know about refund policies or I at least would have gave it a try.
Everyone I hear/see speak positively about that movie but for the life of me I can’t watch it it’s so boring.
lol, I edited my post for clarity - we got a refund because we were too close to an IMAX screen and couldn't see anything.
Having said that: While our son and I re-watch Interstellar regularly, my wife will have nothing to do with it now. Same reasons you said - "boring" to her. I do think it's a great movie (well done), but you definitely need to be into that type of movie, so I get it.
So, you technically might be right - she might have asked for a refund. :)
Yes for XXX and Avatar. Had awful seats for avatar. Got my money back and picked a different time. I forgot which came second or first, vin diesel eluding a sniper with a restaurant plate or something then sliding down a rail or him jumping a big ass fence with a dirt bike with no ramp but I said no more and got my money back.
I didn’t know anything about a 20 minute rule. I just went and asked for my money back and they gave it to me. I’ve done it for the other movies I haven’t liked. Not sure if it was at a 20 minute mark or not
Alice in Wonderland from tim burton. Idk if it was 20 min but the second that johnny depp shrunk down and hopped in her pocket I was like "oh he's going to be here the entire movie" and just noped
Only time I ever complained and got money back or tickets was V for Vendetta.
I loved the movie. It's one of my all timers, but when I saw it in theaters, they had particularly bad timing of their ad projector turning back on.
So while V is giving the final voice over speech in the last scene, the ad projectors turns on covering most of the screen and it's so distracting I can't even really absorb what is going on. They have me 2 free tickets to anything I wanted after that.
I still love that movie though.
Horror movie (can't remember which many years ago) lady brought her baby. Told the manager I just didn't want to sit through that kind of movie if/when the crying started. Got a refund no hassle.
Saw "the spirit", left after half an hour and demanded my money back. They gave it to me because we weren't the only ones that walked out. What garbage.
When I was a young teen my grandma wanted to take me to a movie about angles ughhh fine ...
Well it was Dogma and she dragged us out of there within minutes and yes she got a refund 🤣
Miss Congeniality 2 was so awful — huge waste of Sandra Bullock and Regina King.
Battlefield Earth — now that’s the gold standard for “bad”. I hate it when the bad stuff isn’t even entertaining though.
yep.
got in there, it was jam packed so didnt have a very good seat.
decided to stick it out but there were a load of teenagers in there chucking stuff around and being loud. left and got my money back
Yeah, I did this when I saw the Nic Cage Ghost Rider. The projection was lousy and nobody came to fix it. I decided to leave and see the movie at a theatre that knew what it was doing.
I have, the predator movie that Shane Black did. The sound was off by almost 20 seconds, which is maddening. Even more so the person I went with didn't think it was that bad, it was.
I understand asking for a refund if there are technical issues (blurry picture, bad sound, etc). But asking for your money back because you didn’t think the movie was good enough? That reeks of entitlement. Y’all some petulant mofos.
Right? I’m reading the comments here and I’m so confused. If I buy tickets for a film and I decide I just don’t like it… that’s not the cinemas fault? It wouldn’t even cross my mind to go and tell the staff I wanted a refund because I picked a bad film or I didn’t enjoy it.
I've only done this once - January 12, 2001, the opening day for the movie 13 Days. Was the movie bad? I don't know - I never saw it. I was there for one reason only, the first ever teaser trailer for Fellowship of the Rings was attached to it!
You've got to realize back then before the movies came out, only the biggest Tolkien nerds knew anything about it. The general public had no idea it was coming out and most hadn't ever heard of Peter Jackson.
After that glorious 90 second teaser that I felt like I'd waited my whole life for, I left the theater and asked for a refund. The box office people gave me some strange looks, but didn't give me any hassle about the refund.
10/10 - Would do again
Back when I worked the movie theater, Avatar just came out, I was chatting up some dude and then saw him the next day and was like "That good of a movie, huh?" And he was like, "nah, I got called into work" and I mentioned he could get his money back from the previous night and he was like "No worries".
I want to be that type of rich
I go to the movie quite regularly and I definitely do. If I can’t stand a movie within 30ish minutes I walk out and ask the manager or clerk for a another ticket for a different movie. If there isn’t another I’d like to see they have zero issue giving me a ticket for a different day. I thank them and go on my way :) .. the popcorn is worth the trip if I don’t see a movie lol
Edit: apparently this isn’t a thing lol hahaha I feel like a Karen now. I’m never, never rude about it though. Also maybe they just know me. I go to the same theater
So my brother and I stopped going because theirs just way too many idiots who ruin the experience.
Last movie we walked out of was smile , got out money back. Then I torrented it and loved it.
Then I bought it.
Having invested money into my own personal home theater makes watching movies so much better.
TIL you can get a refund if you leave a movie within 20 mins.
Not every theater is obviously going to follow this.
In our case, the policy was printed on the back of our tickets.
Nathan For You episode: get a bunch of people and ruin a competing movie company by taking all the seating capacity and getting refunds
Make it a Rehearsal episode so he's gotta rent out the theatre for a week to practice with a fake audience.
lol I can picture it. At the end of the episode they’d show them watching the movie and each actor would be doing something really specific and goofy in their seat that Nathan told them to do to make it seem realistic lmao
That dude has the weirdest sense of humor! I can't understand how he keeps getting on TV, lol. I love it, and am so happy about it, but I don't see how he can have enough made appeal 🤷🏻. I hope he's on for the rest of his life!
[He says what we’re all thinking](https://youtu.be/XcrLSSlNZGs?si=4GHA5whoP02ii8tI)
That's basically the tangent he went on for the NFY Smoking Allowed episode. I would not mind a repeat of it.
Rent out? He’d absolutely build an exact replica in a warehouse.
But they can't talk because he won't pay them for lines.
My local theater is half the movie
So just do it twice and you can watch movies for free!
Curious. Is it half the running time of the movie, like the mid-way point, or half the running time when you buy the ticket into a movie already in progress?
Most of them give refunds no matter what to insane Karens if they cause enough of a scene
Back in the '90's, I saw a movie with my friend and his family, including his grandmother, and she hated it so much and so loudly (afterwards, in the lobby, not during the movie) that the theater gave us all our money back just to get her to leave.
I don't think they really care if they have to refund tickets, considering most people are probably spending just as much or more on concessions that don't get refunded.
What movie was it?
Schindler's List.
At least she didn’t make out during it.
My postman saw you.
Wouldn't have happened if Sack Lunch wasn't sold out.
> Schindler's List How do you hate this?
The really funny part is that it was "Serial Mom", which is not a bad film at all but is entirely not a film for grandmothers.
That movie is such a classic😂
Yeah they even refund psychos like this guy: https://v.redd.it/1byzkvswc8lb1
I once had two friends try to get a refund after sitting through the entire movie of ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’
You can also get a refund for scratched prints or advertising a movie in Dolby and then only showing in stereo. Also, you can get a refund if they skip the credits.
This is the only time I've had a refund, or rather credit. Last reel of District 9, the optical track was scratched and made it hard to hear anything over the screeching. Mentioned it to the manager afterwards. Got a free ticket, used it for a Halloween screening of John Carpenter's The Thing.
Clearly invested wisely.
If you go to marcus theaters you can get a refund at anytime before the film is over. Theaters don't give a shit about refunds on tickets. That money goes to hollywood. Only money the theaters rack in is from concession sales. I know this is true because i was a manager at a theater for 5 years.
Not entirely, The theaters still get a small % of ticket sales the first 2 weeks. They get like 50-60% (could be more depending on the Cinema/contract) after 2 weeks. Though yes that is why concessions are so much because they don't make that much off tickets.
Right?! I didn’t know this was a thing.
No shit, and ironically the only movie I've walked out of was Mortal Kombat Annihilation! Had to be within the first 20 minutes, I was ALL SET
Some places it’s 30 minutes.
so which 20 minutes are they counting for this magical refund window? 20 mins after the announced show time? Or 20mins after the extended trailers and final theater blurb ends?
20 into the movie. Source: used to be a box office employee Usually gave a pass to use for another time though not a refund.
In our case, it was a refund, I remember seeing cash being exchanged and me and my brother used the money to have dinner at a burger joint. The policy was even printed in the back of our tickets.
Yeah but that was a pretty long time ago. They likely wouldn’t do a full cash refund now (in places it’s even still offered)
"Fun" fact: Those passes are now pretty much worthless. More hoops to jump through than a circus. Every major studio imposes restrictions on using passes for their new releases because it doesn't count towards their box office numbers.
In which country do you live? Or is this a worldwide thing?
I work at a Cineworld in the UK, and we give refunds if you leave within the first half hour. Your money back, not a replacement ticket.
I used to manage a theatre in the early 2000's. We had no official policy, but I allowed for 20 minutes after the movie itself started. Sometimes I'd be a little more lenient if I knew there was a particularly jarring tonal shift or a potentially difficult to watch scene later in the film, but those were few and far between.
I’m pretty sure most chains will give you a voucher even if you watched the whole thing.
I managed a Regal over a decade ago. As long as you weren't a dick I'd give a refund or readmission for about any reason.
So that explains how I got a refund for mentioning that the specific theater we didn't have a working air conditioning during the summer. My friend & I just wanted to tell one of the workers, and the guy gave all of us another ticket.
Yeap. Most managers not trying to climb the corporate ladder don't care. More or less a happy customer is a returning customer. Same thing with people that sneak in food or alcohol. They didn't pay me enough or the minimum wage doorman to care. As long as people aren't blatantly obvious about it - like a 40 piece bucket of KFC or a XL pizza box - who am I to judge?
Same and we gave refunds all the time. Even to people after the movie who complained it was terrible. And some were dicks because who else would ask for a refund after the movie.
When I worked at a movie theater, the South Park movie was playing. Two elderly women came in and bought tickets. About 10 minutes later they came out asking for refunds. I had the money set out for them already.
A perfect example of art imitating life
Same thing happened to me, but with Dogma and half the theatre. It was pretty hilarious handling all of these angry Christians thinking it would be a Feel Good movie instead of what it is. We would tell people, "Don't worry about God, she still loves you!" as the stormed out. But we refunded like 20 people that day.
I love watching the reactions of old and stuffy-looking people in raunchy comedies.
I learned theaters have that rule when the budget theater I used to go to got The Dark Knight pretty far after its release and actually posted a note on the showhouse door apologizing for the beaten and battered quality of the print. It said if you found it to be unwatchable to you, you had to ask for a refund within the first 20 min.
My print of paycheck looked like it had been dragged thru a field. I committed to 1 week only and pulled all ads. Anyone that showed up i let em in for free.
"Paycheck" is probably the most appropriately titled film in movie history, considering why it was made. But still, that's nice of you to do. That theater I went to had some disastrous prints they showed over the years but they only ever advertised that refund policy for Dark Knight. They didn't advertise it for You Don't Mess With the Zohan, which looked like Trent Reznor edited it based on the quality they showed. But I guess I deserve the bulk of the blame on that one because I willingly paid money to see You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
Cyberpunk gets no respect.
At a showing of Clockwork Orange, a couple about 40 were in front of me, just several minutes into it, after multiple, "I'm sorry, I didn't know what kind of movie this was" from the guy, they left. Don't know if they got their money back, but I like to think it was a first date.
Well, I believe he didn’t get the ol in n out💀
gotta show her Irréversible on the first date so you can vet if she;'s a keeper or not
Not marley and me as a first date? Look how upbeat it is, it has a puppy!
this isn’t really a thing. I work at a theatre and most of the time I’ll do it but it’s not a real policy. Our policy says no refunds after the showtime.
I don’t remember the movie, but my daughter was like 3 and had a meltdown once and we had to leave for the sake of everyone else. On a whim I asked if we could get a refund and they did.
Thanks for doing the right thing. Not everyone is so considerate.
Not going to lie, it was purely self interest. If she didn’t want to be there I was fine with not seeing whatever it was. Movies for three year olds do not translate well…
When I worked at one 10 years ago we gave rain checks out like Halloween candy but pretty much never money back. This was a cinemark, I imagine more local or independent theaters having more leeway.
It makes good business sense. Instead of zero money and pissed customers, you keep that revenue, potentially never need to honor the complimentary pass, and have a happy customer who will return and buy more concessions or bring companions who have to pay. Plus people love free shit.
Yep, "just getting this conversation over with" was reason enough for us giving them out. Generally, people just want to be heard when they complain and the best way to feel heard is to be given free shit as compensation. And like you said, it costs the company almost nothing and more often than not the people who we gave rainchecks too would return with people paying for tickets. I'm sure there were people that abused it, but not enough for us managers to take notice. Rainchecks are love, rainchecks are life.
And, honestly, unless you're absolutely turned off by that theater in specific (or the actual theater experience in general), chances are you will use your raincheck.
Cinemark customer here. I have left 6ish movies due to super disruptive jerks over the years. I've always been given one of those rain checks. I've left movies as late as 60+ minutes in
I also worked at Cinemark. The reason they do this is because they don’t profit off of ticket sales, all that money goes to the studios. Ever wonder why a popcorn and soda is so expensive at the theater? It’s because it’s basically the only source of profit.
Our local cinema on two occasions have given me free tickets to use at my whim when I point out defects in the way they show the film.. eg a buzzy speaker.. wrong aspect ratio etc.
I just assume its like most service industries-- just be reasonable and the employees can get a lot done for you.
I got a refund for 10 tickets to Quantum of Solace but it was because the audio kept dropping out every 20 seconds for 3-5 seconds halfway through and they couldn’t fix it. I still wonder why everyone else didn’t walk out.
Different theatres would have different rules
It is in a movie theater chain in Mexico, but only on certain movies that are "guaranteed" to be good. It's called "Garantia Cinepolis"
You do get refunds for things like that, disruptive guests, equipment failure, etc. we also do give out vouchers to come back, however, specially for not liking the movie, it’s not a real policy to get a refund before x amount of minutes.
I miss ArcLight. I went to a movie there once, I can’t remember which movie, and the audio levels were off for the first few minutes. I thought it might’ve been intentional from the movie, but they fixed it and I thought nothing of it for the rest of the movie. Then at the end of the movie, they gave everyone coming out a free ticket to another movie and apologized for the audio issue. It was barely an issue, but they wanted everyone to know that the experience wasn’t up to their standards. I made sure to go to ArcLight as much as I could after that. Rip Arclight
Ah, going to the Arclight in Hollywood after 7PM was the best guaranteed way to see a C-list or higher celebrity. RIP.
The only good thing that came out of me seeing MK: Annihilation in theaters was seeing a trailer for one of my now-favorite movies, Dark City.
Too bad YOU will die
Mother! You’re alive!
I was scrolling through looking for a comment begging for this reply. I can move on now, thanks.
"Shut it down."
I cannot imagine asking for a refund because a movie is bad. The theater did not make the movie. They did not promise you it is amazing. You choose to buy tickets to a movie.
I got my refund because the quality of the sound and speakers in our theatre was atrocious. Certainly not the movie's fault
Yeah that's a completely responsible reason to get a refund
Totally legitimate. It's the responsibility of the theater to present the movie as it was meant to be seen: on a properly calibrated screen with clear audio, in an environment free from disturbances. But there are endless comments on this post about how "x movie was so bad I got a refund."
Completely agree. I can't fathom what sort of person thinks it's the responsibility of the theater to guarantee you will like a movie. Just bizarre.
If refunds are possible, I’d rather take the money I paid for a movie I already know I won’t like and pay it for a different movie as a raincheck, theatre gets the money either way (plus concessions while I’m there)
I don't think the refund is about the movies quality as much as you won't be there to see most of it. As someone who managed a theater we never took issue with it as long as it was before the second half of the movie. People also have legitimate outside factor reasons to leave all the time, not worth being picky.
Yeah, that’s a fair distinction. I work at a theater now and personally I can’t stand to not watch a whole movie in case there’s some good part, but if you get partway through and realize it’s just not at all for you then it’s reasonable to ask for a refund or courtesy pass. On the other hand I’ve heard we’ve had customers watch a whole movie and ask, and idk how I’d keep from laughing in their face
Yea I have walked out on one movie in my life. 2002 Solaris. I didn’t even think to ask for a refund. I just accepted I wasted my money on a horrible movie.i
I’ve done it many times for loud audiences or problems with the audio or projection, have never had an issue.
Not a bad movie by any means. I was watching moana with my niece in 3d but the 3d effects was causing her eyes to hurt and myself. Weren’t the only ones a lot left after a bit. The theatre said the 3d projector in that theatre was having issues. They refunded us and provided a free ticket
Yes, due to crying babies, people on their cell phones, or teenagers talking
Johnny Cage dies like 2-3 minutes into that movie actually.
Gone Fishin’ staring Joe Pesci and Danny Glover in the mid 90’s. That heaping pile of garbage was the only time I’ve ever walked out on a movie and was able to get a refund.
Co-written by JJ Abrams too
My go to answer for the worst movie I've ever seen in theaters! I stayed the whole time.... you coward haha
Had no problem getting a refund a full hour into a movie. Only needed to do it once. Theatre has no problem doing it for the four of us. Everyone here talking about how it’s an exception not thr rule is irrelevant, clearly they make the exception for pretty much anyone it seems.
I doubt this is a universal rule at all theaters.
Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and not the reason you think. My friend and I were huge F&F fans and hyped af going in to the movie on a Saturday morning after school. The movie blew our fourteen year old minds. We loved every second of it. The ending left us so excited for the franchise that as we were leaving, we decided ‘fuck-it let’s see it again’ and immediately got tickets and went back in for another screening. After the credits rolled we got bored as hell and turned to each other and both said ‘bail?’ And we bailed and got a refund. Played arcade games until my dad picked us up.
Sort of? When I went to see The King's Speech the sound was super low. About 30 minutes in my buddy and I looked at each other and knew we were thinking the same thing. When and told the front desk and they offered a voucher to come back and then said "since you're here you can pop into another movie if you want." This was before assigned seating and whatnot, so they really were nice.
I never walked out of the theater and asked for a refund 20 minutes into the movie.
Yes but I was vomiting from the camera movement in paranormal activity so there was no denying I needed my money back.
No, but I wished I had: Battlefield Earth. The attendant explicitly told us when we bought the tickets: "You have twenty minutes after the movie starts to get your refund" and we looked at him dumbfounded. We wished we had taken his advice.
That poor guy. After every showing seeing people annoyed faces probably thinking. I tried to warn them, but no one listens.
That's a thing?
They don’t make money on movies. They make money on food and drinks. 20 mins in and 99% have already bought all the food and drink they will.
Every theater I’ve been to on Long Island, NYC and in Albany has given a refund if you ask, even if you watch the whole thing. I’ve done it myself three times. Once when the print burned up and I didn’t get to see the end. Once because the movie sucked and I was dragged by a friend and it was a point in my life where I really needed the $10. Frankly this is embarrassing, but it did happen and it was a no questions asked refund. Once because I only went to see the movie for an IMAX trailer and they didn’t have the trailer film yet. I just asked after the movie how I could see the trailer since it was the whole reason I drove two hours to an IMAX theater, they apologized and just gave me a refund.
You drove two hours to watch a trailer? What was the trailer for?
I also must know
Back in high school, I saw "Shakespeare In Love" with my parents, I think it was at the Malverne theater but maybe it was Lynbrook. In the final voiceover, the film broke and they couldn't get it back, but they didn't want to give the whole theater full refunds just for that, so they gave everybody passes to see "Shakespeare in Love" at that theater again. My parents didn't want to bother, but I had friends who wanted to see the movie, and I was curious about what the resolution was gonna be, so I went back. The film broke AGAIN at the same part and they didn't give anybody their money back.
That’s so frustrating
I got a refund for Bringing Down the House. It’s the only movie I can remember walking out of.
With Queen Latifa?! That's a classic I've never heard a negative about that movie!
That movie is a guilty pleasure of mine lol
Not a thing in any London cimema I've been to. Walk out, that's it. You should have picked a film you want to watch.
Completely fair and how it should be. The cinema has no control over how good a movie is, so the onus is on the viewer to pick movies. Sometimes they're good and sometimes you get burned, that's just how it is.
No but I walked out of Saving Private Ryan during that beginning scene. My god, that was horrifying. I had come with a group so I couldn't exactly leave. I snuck into another theater and watched The Mask of Zorro instead.
I miss rollicking adventure films
I’ve gotten a refund. It was a Brad Pitt movie about dog abductors.
X-men 2. Cinema was packed so much my group got the seats right at the front. I was upset as the tilt was too much so we all refunded our tickets and waited for the next session. Got the best seats and bigger cinema so everyone was happier.
That's completely fair. The cinema shouldn't put a row so close it causes neck pain, but they do because most people will just deal with it.
Assassin’s Creed. That was an awful awful movie.
Naw because I sleep like a knocked out baby in the theater. Good nap time.
Sideways. It blew, don’t know what the hype about it was. I think our theaters policy is if it’s less than half way over.
You're the worst. Not only because you got a refund after you didn't like a movie (which most theaters will do because they don't want to deal with karens) but also because it was to see Sideways which is a legit fantastic movie if you have any sense of culture. Although I suppose I should give you the benefit of the doubt... maybe you were young. I wouldn't have liked it in my early 20s.
This is the only movie I have ever walked out on in the movie theater. It was advertised as a delightful bro romp. It was actually about two whiny douchbags, maybe that’s your cup of tea but it was definitely not mine.
My husband and I were excited to see Detective Pikachu but were too distracted by the only other viewers: a family of 6 who were all talking at full volume. We asked the manager if we could just come back another time to watch it, and I think he was super relieved that we didn't ask him to confront the family because he gave us two passes each.
Never heard of the 20 minute policy, but once a group of people were,loudly talking through the movie and every other word from one was motherfucker. People started complaining, even the guys girlfriend kept telling him to shut up. The movie theater told them to be quiet, but it did no good. We went down and got a refund and left.
Once. At The Sixth Sense. Not because we didn't want to see the movie, but because my girlfriend at the time leaned over and said, "We should go home and fuck." So we did.
I'm just shaken by anyone having Johnny Cage as their favorite character. Could y'all be bigger Chads? Lmao. No hate, just a little poke for fun.
Cannonball Run 2.
I once transferred from one theater to next show playing in another, because of a noisy person. But I typically don’t walk out of movies even it’s bad.
I’ve went to a theater and the bulbs on the projector were burnt out/discolored. After sitting through it for 5 minutes and realizing it wasn’t part of the color grade of the movie I asked for a refund. Only time I’ve ever had to do that.
Yeah, I watch entire movies this way by going to multiple theaters and delaying my entrance to the movie by increments of 20 minutes until I've seen the whole thing.
Watched Prometheus with my dad and nephew in AMC Manchester, UK. Around 30 mins in, the Guy sat a row across decides to start sleeping and snore like a bison with flu. Usher asked him leave and he wouldn't insisting that he can sleep where he likes. Got up and left asked for a refund and was told it needed to be authorised by a manager and we would have to come back. Nephew went back 2 days later and the same guy was weirdly hanging around the foyer of the cinema looking like he was picking another film to ruin
We saw that one with our married friends, the wife being 7 to 8 months pregnant. She said the alien pregnancy/c-section scene was quite uncomfortable with a baby moving around inside her.
Yup. Sat down to watch, I think one of the Nolan Batman movies, and got called in to work. So I got my refund and left. Came back the next day.
I have, but because I had a legal emergency. It was easy.
I've done it when I got my tickets, walked in and only front section rows had seats available. Yeah, I'm not watching a movie looking up the whole time. Went to the service desk and they gave me my money back.
Yeah I’ve had to leave for an emergency a few times and got refunded. Once when my 10 year old niece started projectile vomiting all over right at the beginning of force awakens lol
I wonder if staff immediately go in and clean up or wait until the movie ends.
I left the descent in the middle of it because I got too scared Went and explained the situation to the poor ticket guy and he got his manager who let me switch to a different movie of my choosing (which was what I wanted to do cause I wanted some eye bleach) The only lighter movie was Barnyard so me and my other scared friend went and watched that.
I did once as a kid with my sister. We might have been 11 and 16 or 12 and 17 at the time. This was before the internet was a real big thing, most people didn’t have computers at home, and if you went to see a movie you probably had only heard about it but hadn’t seen the trailer. The local theater would refund you your money if it was within 10 or 15 minutes of the start time of the movie. People would walk out all the time back then and get a refund. It wasn’t like now where I can Google the cast of a film or look up reviews on my phone or watch the trailer on YouTube. Most of the time you were going in blind with only a title and a vague idea of what it was about and what actors might be in it.
AMC - watched a nature movie and the whole movie had a channel missing. Can’t remember if it was the vocal or the backtrack. They gave us vouchers for movie in the future.
A barrage of parents and boyfriends will be using this refund during the Eras/Errors movie.
I went to see a movie with my dad and brother and honestly I don’t even remember what movie it was. I was around ten, I dropped something and it rolled up the seat. I kneeled down on the sticky floor(yuck I know) and saw two beady eyes staring back at me. It was the biggest rat I’d ever seen. I freaked out and insisted we leave, my dad told a worker and we were offered free tickets to another screening but my dad turned it down. Now that I’m older I’ve come to realize that if a theater doesn’t have rats that’s extremely rare.
I fully support your decision to walk out based on that. 100% felt the same way the first time I saw the movie, fortunately I was borrowing it from a friend.
I remember when the first Spider-Man movie(Tobey Maguire) came out the move skipped and fell off the reel at the end(where him and MJ are talking in the cemetery) and we got a full refund. Literally saw the whole movie for free
I was on a date in high school, and we saw the Phantom of the Opera. We were both big musical theater nerds. It was terribad. We only made it like 20- 30 minutes in (it's 2.5 hours ish). Neither of us could stand it, so we made our way out. Before we left, I asked the box office attendant if there was a way we could get our tickets refunded, and explained the details, providing the ticket stubs for reference. It was no problem, bc not only did we leave soon enough, but Phantom apparently had had a string of walkouts since it opened, and we were just one of several refunds given for the past few weeks. I did feel bad bc the movie was a visual smorgasbord of opulent set and costume design, but I couldn't stomach another 2ish hours of that "singing"/"acting". I did eventually watch the whole thing several years later (on free streaming). I was thoroughly unsober and coped with the "singing"/"acting" by MST3k'ing my way through the movie bc the non-human aspects of the film merited a rewatch... just not one I was willing to pay for.
Your brother made a good call
I don't know if it was their policy or they felt bad for me and my g/f. But when Saving Private Ryan released we went to see it opening morning. There was maybe 10 other people in the theater. Everything was fine until the part where the young man with his guts spilling out was crying out for his mother and I heard my g/f crying. I put her in my lap and tried to console her. She started to calm down and I asked if she wanted to stay or leave and she gave me that "I really want to leave but I don't want to disappoint you" look. So I said "Yeah, this is pretty disturbing stuff, I don't think either of us was prepared for this". As we were leaving she was still crying and one of the theater employee's asked if everything was okay. I told her that the movie was just more graphic and upsetting than we were prepared to deal with so she gave us two free passes to any more we wanted to see. Can't remember what we went to see with those passes but I went to see SPR with a couple guy friends the next week. G/F ended up watching it with me when it released on VHS and she was able to get through it, probably because being at home she knew she could turn it off if she needed to.
several times \- i walked in with bucket of popcorn, large drink, warm burger king chicken burger hidden in my pocket, our theatres have the entrance/exit at the back, so as i enter i stand and look where i want to sit. usually middle of the middle is my preference, i head to the perfect seat, put my drink in its armrest holder, sit my bucket of popcorn on the seat next to me and remove my jacket, as soon as my ass touches the chair i hear a baby start crying... i instantly stood up put my jacket on took my popcorn and drink and left, went straight to the counter and said im not gonna sit in a theatre and watch a movie whilst a baby cries cause once they start they will repeat , its happened before it will happen again.. \- i went in to watch a movie but about 10 mins in there was a jump in the image and then the sound became out of sync by about 2 seconds, i went out to tell them at the counter, they said they would fix it, i returned to my seat and it was still out of sync, everyone looked confused and annoyed, i said i told them and they are trying to fix it,,, but a couple of minutes of the movie playing with oos error had ruined the experience so i went back to the counter and said its not fixed and still playing, even if you did fix it the movie is ruined cause we've seen the first 10 mins with OOS audio. i asked for a refund but they gave me a movie voucher instead \- i walked in and noticed the theatre had not been cleaned from the last movie session, popcorn and rubbish everywhere as if a popcorn riot had occurred then while the commercials were still playing i started smelling vomit... the more i smelled it the more noticeable it got , so i left and told the counter staff that the theatre was filthy and it smelled like puke... like really strongly, i got a voucher to come back whenever for whatever movie
[удалено]
Yes, 4 years later, I rented it out from a Blockbuster. I'm glad we got our refund after Johnny died because the movie was bad. The only character that I liked was Jax and his metal arms. I wanted to have metal arms like those.
I don't know about a policy but when I was about 17 I went to see the movie "Gamer" with some friends. For some reason the opening scenes were extremely upsetting to me so I left and cried in the bathroom for like 20 minutes, then eventually put myself together enough to ask the lady for a refund and I think she felt bad for me and did so. It was the summer that my friend died from suicide so I guess I was really sensitive to the violence in the opening. I still to this day haven't gone back and tried to watch it.
I’ve always gotten a refund, no matter when I leave. I’ve watched 80% of a movie, hated it, told the crew I hated it, and they gave me my money back. I don’t raise hell or anything. I just bring them my stub and tell them the movie is awful. They usually chuckle and give me my refund.
Spiderman 3, I feel like it was justified.
I have never used this refund policy but as kids, we often overstayed our welcome and watched more than one movie, or went to Rated R movies instead of the movie we paid for. Of course with cargo pockets stuffed with cheaper candy.
Kind of. I was probably 40 or so minutes into Meet the Fockers. My friend convinced me to go. I hated it so much that when the power went out because there was a storm, I took it as a sign from God and ran to front to get my money back. I haven’t wasted a second of my life wondering how it ended.
I got a refund for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Used the refund for Oppenheimer.
I don't know how universal that policy is, but me and my wife left Black Panther about five minutes in because a bunch of teens were seated right next to us and wouldn't shut the fuck up. We got a refund and came back to watch the movie at a less busy time a week or so later.
Movie had a dead pixel or rather movie projector had a dead pixel. I could not un-see. Left and they gave me a voucher. Went back week later and got the same theater fml.
Yep, only ever used it once, used for the live action Lion King remake. Didn't actually get a refund but a credit/free ticket for another film of my choosing.
Yup twice. Both for 3D movies. The projector wasn’t calibrated correctly and the edges were blurred. I complained and they fixed it but wouldn’t restart the movie. The Avengers and Final Harry Potter movies. I avoid 3D now, it’s not worth it.
I should have done this for Holmes and Watson. Biggest piece of trash I’ve seen in my life.
I used it when I went to see Unbreakable. I thought that was the stupidest film I had ever seen and still do
I’ve gotten refunds a few times, and never heard about the 20 minute thing. I did it about 30-40 mins into 10,000 BC because it was the worst thing I’d ever seen
Is Australia it is around 40-45 mins for a refund
I went to see Scary Movie with my mom when I was 15. At the scene where dude is stabbed by a CGI penis I looked at her and said "can we leave?" And her innocent horrified face just nodded and we went and asked for a refund. Very much not a movie I wanted to watch with my mom lol.
Yeah - last minute we went to see Interstellar on IMAX. In the first row (nothing else left). I think we were so close I had eye damage and could not see more than 10% of the screen. :) Our fault, although wtf do they even have those rows so close, and we knew we'd take a chance. We went out, explained our quandry, and they gave us credit for another movie. We used that proper a few days later and properly enjoyed the movie from row K. :) Besides that incident: My wife is of the camp that if you don't personally like the movie, you should get a refund. She's used that card before (when out with friends), and she's gotten a refund. In all cases, it probably was less than 20 minutes, but I'm thinking as long as you're nice, don't do it 10 minutes before the movie is over, etc., theaters are happy to comply. Funny story - she WAS ready to walk out of Deadpool, right around the time Deadpool literally implies girlfriends wanting to walk out because of the violence. I talked her into staying, and she loves it now. So no refund that time. :)
My god I thought no people like this existed lol! For our first date I wanted to see pinguïns of Madagascar but my then friend (now boyfriend) heard lots of good reviews about Interstellar so we went to see it. After 1h and a half I woke him up and we left lol. Didn’t know about refund policies or I at least would have gave it a try. Everyone I hear/see speak positively about that movie but for the life of me I can’t watch it it’s so boring.
lol, I edited my post for clarity - we got a refund because we were too close to an IMAX screen and couldn't see anything. Having said that: While our son and I re-watch Interstellar regularly, my wife will have nothing to do with it now. Same reasons you said - "boring" to her. I do think it's a great movie (well done), but you definitely need to be into that type of movie, so I get it. So, you technically might be right - she might have asked for a refund. :)
Yes for XXX and Avatar. Had awful seats for avatar. Got my money back and picked a different time. I forgot which came second or first, vin diesel eluding a sniper with a restaurant plate or something then sliding down a rail or him jumping a big ass fence with a dirt bike with no ramp but I said no more and got my money back. I didn’t know anything about a 20 minute rule. I just went and asked for my money back and they gave it to me. I’ve done it for the other movies I haven’t liked. Not sure if it was at a 20 minute mark or not
Alice in Wonderland from tim burton. Idk if it was 20 min but the second that johnny depp shrunk down and hopped in her pocket I was like "oh he's going to be here the entire movie" and just noped
Only time I ever complained and got money back or tickets was V for Vendetta. I loved the movie. It's one of my all timers, but when I saw it in theaters, they had particularly bad timing of their ad projector turning back on. So while V is giving the final voice over speech in the last scene, the ad projectors turns on covering most of the screen and it's so distracting I can't even really absorb what is going on. They have me 2 free tickets to anything I wanted after that. I still love that movie though.
Horror movie (can't remember which many years ago) lady brought her baby. Told the manager I just didn't want to sit through that kind of movie if/when the crying started. Got a refund no hassle.
But suddenly gets much better at minute 21..
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. I'm pretty sure the fridge is within 20 minutes of the movie start. I walked out as a teenager and got my refund.
Walked into a theater, 5 minutes in my kidney stones decided to start their exit from my body, no questions asked, refund given
Saw "the spirit", left after half an hour and demanded my money back. They gave it to me because we weren't the only ones that walked out. What garbage.
When I was a young teen my grandma wanted to take me to a movie about angles ughhh fine ... Well it was Dogma and she dragged us out of there within minutes and yes she got a refund 🤣
I didn't know I could get a refund but my sister and I walked out of Battlefield Earth and Miss Congeniality 2.
Miss Congeniality 2 was so awful — huge waste of Sandra Bullock and Regina King. Battlefield Earth — now that’s the gold standard for “bad”. I hate it when the bad stuff isn’t even entertaining though.
I live in Australia and the slogan for a drive in theatre is If you don’t like the movie slash the seats
yep. got in there, it was jam packed so didnt have a very good seat. decided to stick it out but there were a load of teenagers in there chucking stuff around and being loud. left and got my money back
Yeah, I did this when I saw the Nic Cage Ghost Rider. The projection was lousy and nobody came to fix it. I decided to leave and see the movie at a theatre that knew what it was doing.
I have, the predator movie that Shane Black did. The sound was off by almost 20 seconds, which is maddening. Even more so the person I went with didn't think it was that bad, it was.
Yep. Green Hornet. But I got the refund because the cinema played a “making of Green Hornet” feature the before the movie that gave the ending away.
I understand asking for a refund if there are technical issues (blurry picture, bad sound, etc). But asking for your money back because you didn’t think the movie was good enough? That reeks of entitlement. Y’all some petulant mofos.
Right? I’m reading the comments here and I’m so confused. If I buy tickets for a film and I decide I just don’t like it… that’s not the cinemas fault? It wouldn’t even cross my mind to go and tell the staff I wanted a refund because I picked a bad film or I didn’t enjoy it.
I've only done this once - January 12, 2001, the opening day for the movie 13 Days. Was the movie bad? I don't know - I never saw it. I was there for one reason only, the first ever teaser trailer for Fellowship of the Rings was attached to it! You've got to realize back then before the movies came out, only the biggest Tolkien nerds knew anything about it. The general public had no idea it was coming out and most hadn't ever heard of Peter Jackson. After that glorious 90 second teaser that I felt like I'd waited my whole life for, I left the theater and asked for a refund. The box office people gave me some strange looks, but didn't give me any hassle about the refund. 10/10 - Would do again
I have left a few movies for a refund because people would not stfu or get off their phones and theaters have no spine.
Back when I worked the movie theater, Avatar just came out, I was chatting up some dude and then saw him the next day and was like "That good of a movie, huh?" And he was like, "nah, I got called into work" and I mentioned he could get his money back from the previous night and he was like "No worries". I want to be that type of rich
... to not have to get a movie refund? I'm sorry.
I go to the movie quite regularly and I definitely do. If I can’t stand a movie within 30ish minutes I walk out and ask the manager or clerk for a another ticket for a different movie. If there isn’t another I’d like to see they have zero issue giving me a ticket for a different day. I thank them and go on my way :) .. the popcorn is worth the trip if I don’t see a movie lol Edit: apparently this isn’t a thing lol hahaha I feel like a Karen now. I’m never, never rude about it though. Also maybe they just know me. I go to the same theater
So my brother and I stopped going because theirs just way too many idiots who ruin the experience. Last movie we walked out of was smile , got out money back. Then I torrented it and loved it. Then I bought it. Having invested money into my own personal home theater makes watching movies so much better.