The following is forwarded from H-AFRLITCINE. It raises an interesting issue that I'd never thought of before and I wonder how valid a concern it is in regard to box-office returns. Does anyone have further thoughts? (On a side note, it reminds of the time I went to THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE and saw that some wag had reprogrammed the ticket title as SATAN'S GOOD BUDDY!) Don Larsson --- Begin Forwarded Message --- Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 15:38:56 -0600 From: Emilie Ngo Nguidjol <[log in to unmask]> Subject: (Fwd) Incorrect Movie Theatre Ticketing Sender: H-NET List for African Literature and Cinema <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Reply-To: H-NET List for African Literature and Cinema <[log in to unmask]> Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> From: "Vicki Washington 2-3049" <[log in to unmask]> Organization: University of Wisconsin-Extension Subject: (Fwd) Incorrect Movie Theatre Ticketing [Editor's Note: This discussion applies so much to the commercial distribution of African films that I thought you might be interested. --Emilie] : Carlotta, thanks for the heads-up. I've heard about this problem in the past; I'll send out the message. Vicki ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: [log in to unmask] From: Carlotta Calmese <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Incorrect Movie Theatre Ticketing Vicki, I found my nephew's email (below) very interesting and thought it might be helpful to pass it along. We've had many recent email discussions about how Hollywood and major movie studios view the African American's economic power base (or lack thereof, according to many of them) in their production and marketing decisions. My nephew's experience clearly indicates an example of box-office receipt misrepresentation (or perhaps collusion ?), which may atttibute to why movies with African American leading actors or socially conscious themes do not fair as well as other movies during the first weekend opening and subsequently disappear from the neighborhood movie screens. Perhaps it may be wise to pay more close attention to our movie ticket stubs. Thanks, Carlotta Carlotta Verge Calmese Assistant Dean, Student Academic Affairs College of Letters and Science University of Wisconsin-Madison B12 Bascom Hall 500 Lincoln Drive Madison, WI 53706 (608) 262-2644 -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Daugherty, Winfred W" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Incorrect Mivie Theatre Ticketing Last evening (Thursday, January 13, 2000) at 10:00PM EST I visited the Cinemark Tinseltown USA movie theater in Rochester, NY (2291 Buffalo Road (716)247-2180) to see "Next Friday" (Ice Cube's new movie). To my dismay, I viewed my ticket and discovered it reflected the 9:35PM showing of "Toy Story 2". I promptly made the ticket agent aware the ticket did not reflect the movie I requested to see. The ticket agent then insulted my intelligence by stating, "It doesn't matter...they will let you view the movie you requested with this ticket". I then replied (to the approximately 16 year old ticket agent), "Well, if it doesn't matter, then I would prefer to have a ticket that reflects "Next Friday" as I requested". He then advised they apparently were having difficulties with their machine and subsequently could not produce tickets for "Next Friday". I asked to speak with the Manager, whom I was advised was unavailable. I recall hearing in the past, this situation occurs often to predominately Black movies, therefore, I was wondering where I may be able to report this so this may be addressed and the movie can receive its proper credit. I am certain as they calculate the number of viewers that have viewed this movie, my ticket (as well as others) will not be included in this total. Please advise how I may be able to contact someone (I have retained my ticket stub) to make them aware of this situation.. I can be reached either by E-mail or at (716)264-6412. Thank you! Winfred Daugherty, Jr. Lead, Programs/Customer Support (716)264-6412 / 8*224-6412 [log in to unmask] --- End Forwarded Message --- ---------------------- Donald Larsson Minnesota State U, Mankato [log in to unmask] ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite