The Weinstein Company insists the midnight screenings 'were listed by mistake' and they already informed the theaters 'either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.'
- Feb 8, 2014
AceShowbiz - The midnight screening for "Vampire Academy", a movie based on Richelle Mead's YA novel of the same name, was canceled, much to the dismay and disappointment of the book's hardcore fans. Many ticket buyers were turned away on the spot when they showed up at the theaters where the screening was supposedly scheduled.
The Weinstein Company quickly addressed the issue in a statement, saying that they rarely, if ever, scheduled midnight shows on Thursday. TWC's Erik Lomis said as quoted by Deadline, "They were listed by mistake. The theaters were informed either Wednesday night or Thursday morning as we found out about them."
But it seemed that the cancellation was not announced by the theaters until the very last minute. The explanation from the theater CinemaBlend's creative director, Mack Rawden, went to was, "I'm very sorry. The studio called earlier today and forced us to cancel our midnight screening for The Vampire Academy. It wasn't our decision, but we'd like to give you four free movie passes to make up for your trouble."
According to Deadline, the daughter of one of the producers, Jillian Preger DeFrehn, who runs the Facebook fan page, showed up at the Glendale 18 to greet fans and ended up apologizing to everyone on behalf of filmmakers. She didn't know about the error and had not heard about the cancellation either.
"Vampire Academy" opens February 7 against "The Lego Movie" which earned rave reviews following the midnight screening on Thursday. After the midnight screening gaffe, the "Vampire Academy" Friday showing went without hitch. "Just watched VA and I left the theater feeling like a bad ass! Yeah ok I'm going to train now!!!! Hahaha totally AWESOME!!!" one fan wrote. The other gushed, "Cannot get over how awesome Vampire Academy was."
