I just learned that 'The Room' was in theaters for two whole weeks

I was reading an old article about cult movies and it said Tommy Wiseau paid to keep his movie playing in a theater in LA. He did it for 14 days straight to try and get an Oscar nomination. That's a lot of money for a movie everyone says is terrible. Has anyone else heard about weird stuff like this for other bad movies?

3 comments

3 Comments

matthewgonzalez3mo ago

That whole Oscar qualification thing is wild. Remember when the movie "Cool Cat Saves the Kids" did something similar? The guy behind it, Derek Savage, bought a bunch of tickets himself to meet the rules for award shows. He even put out a weird video threatening critics. It feels like some of these filmmakers care more about the technical award chance than if the movie is actually any good. Makes you wonder how many other terrible films have tried the same kind of theater rental scheme just to say they were "in theaters.

hill.troy3mo ago

That Derek Savage video threatening critics was something else. @matthewgonzalez, you're right about the theater rental scheme. How many movies do you figure actually play in those one week Oscar runs with an empty house? I heard about a film that rented a theater for just one showing a day at 8 am to technically meet the rules. It makes the whole qualification feel fake.

noah9141mo ago

Remember that fast food place that tried to win a "Best Burger" award by submitting a tiny slider only available at a single location for one day a year? Same kind of thing. It's this whole weird game where people bend rules just to say they won something, instead of actually being good at what they do. I saw a documentary about a guy who rented out a whole movie theater just for his family and friends to qualify for some festival, then bragged about being an "award winning filmmaker." It's like people who sign up for a marathon, walk one block, then take the subway to the finish line for a photo. The system rewards the loophole jumpers, and the honest folks who actually make decent stuff get ignored. Feels like that's just how everything works now, from cooking contests to small business awards.