AMC Theatres has announced that it will not exhibit ThinkFilm’s “The Aristocrats,” an unrated documentary that features a series of comedians performing their renditions of the same classic dirty joke. Spokeswoman Pam Blase said that AMC Film Group Chairman Dick Walsh decided, with other executives, not to show the film.
It’s worth mentioning that AMC is soon to be the second-largest U.S. theatre chain after its merger with Loews Cineplex. So, while the documentary will open at Loews theatres next month, AMC’s acquisition of Loews can only foreshadow the kind of censorship endemic to media consolidation, a symptom of the same disease that now plagues the airwaves. ThinkFilm President and Chief Executive Jeff Sackman said:
“You’re going to have two theater circuits dominant in the country, and they’re going to say, ‘We don’t think you should see this movie.’”
But what’s most interesting to this moviegoer (or “consumer,” as they refer to us) is that, while a documentary without violence or nudity has been deemed too rich for AMC’s blood, the company remains more than happy to peddle a staggering amount of commercial tripe in the form of music and video “advertainment.” Your typical AMC experience includes pop contemporary hits blaring from every speaker, provided by AMC partner Movie Tunes (”Advertiser Benefit: Low clutter, no tune-out - captive audience”). And then, the crown jewel of AMC’s monetization blitz, the “Pre-Show Countdown,” brought to you by AMC’s commercial subsidiary National Cinema Network.
AMC and Regal announced, in March 2005, that they were combining their cinema advertising divisions into one company, which will produce a shared pre-show. At least we know who to boycott.
as the dahleks used to say….”exterminate! exterminate!” we need to fire these executives running these companies.
i think you need to add a feature to send a message to the party responsible and stuff their email boxes full of comments about being censored…
oh and it’s funny that violent military crap movies like “stealth” will fly (pun intended) through their censor radar without a probelm…violence and killing good! anthing that makes you think bad!!
–pixelthug on Jul 14, 2005 @ 3:08 pm