An American Carol’s Disappointing Box Office Due to Ticket Fraud?!

Posted by on October 9th, 2008   Filed under: Box Office, Comedy
Source: Videogum

If you ask me, it wasn’t all that surprising to see David Zucker’s An American Carol pull in only $3.6 million last weekend. If anything, I’m surprised it didn’t make less. I mean, putting aside the fact that it was one of the most crowded weekends of the year in terms of large scale releases, and putting aside the fact that the movie wasn’t really advertised all that well, An American Carol is also a politically-charged movie — and we all know that Americans don’t like politics coming anywhere near their escapist entertainment! On top of all that, it quite simply didn’t look all that funny.

Well, apparently the producers of the film are convinced that real reason the movie didn’t do so well is because there was a conspiracy against it! Yep, according to Wonkette there was a message that appeared on the movie’s official website this week that hinted at a possible ticket fraud scam. The message has since been removed, but here is an excerpt:

“We have had heard from numerous people across the country that there has been some ticket fraud when buying a ticket for An American Carol this past weekend.

Please check your ticket. If you were in fact one of those people that were “mistakenly” sold a ticket for another movie please fill out the form below. Hold on to your ticket so we can have proof.”

How is this even possible? If you received a ticket with the wrong movie on it, wouldn’t you be directed to the wrong theatre? And how would owning a ticket from a different movie be proof of anything? Accusing the kids who work at the local multiplex of some massive conspiracy is probably the most ridiculous thing ever. This has got to be the worst excuse for a box office flop that I’ve heard yet (and Hollywood’s pretty good at coming up with creative ones).



  • Don’t mean to get all political on ya’lls, but this story seems to illustrate the paranoid world that many members of the American political right live in (I haven’t seen the movie, but I’m correct to label this as a right-wing spoof of Michael Moore, no?).

    They’re quick to find some nebulous conspiracy to blame when situations don’t work out in their favor. If ‘An American Carol’ doesn’t do boffo box office on opening weekend, then it was obviously because of some crazy ticket fraud conspiracy, not because ‘An American Carol’ is a shit movie. If Barack Obama wins the presidential election in November, then it’s obviously because the mainstream liberal media is in the tank for him, not because John McCain is a shit candidate.

    Also, if you’re saying I’m unfairly judging this movie because I’m a liberal and can’t stand to see Michael Moore parodied, that’s not the case. I’ve mentioned in other comments how I can’t stand the guy anymore. Dude is ripe for parody. ‘Team America: World Police’ did a crude but funny job of making fun of him, and I laughed my ass off at that movie. But ‘An American Carol’ just looks like all the other shitty parodies that have come out over the past decade (the ‘Movie’ movies) that have sucked.

  • megan

    I remember when I went to see the first Austin Powers movie, the ticket I received said it was for the (then untainted) Michael Richards’ box office smash; “Trial and Error”.
    conspiracy?!?

  • Bryan

    Sounds more like the producers of a political satire are spoofing the ‘voter fraud’ conspiracies of 2000 and 2004.

    A joke? Probably. A funny joke? Maybe not so much.

  • Everyone pretty much said it already.

  • Dan from New Jersey

    The best thing Kevin Farley did was 2ge+her, the MTV boy-band parody movie.

  • @ Bryan:

    That would be pretty funny. But I think David Zucker has proven that he is incapable of being funny anymore, so I don’t buy it!

  • This supposed “conspiracy” makes bo sense, I can’t even wrap my head around how it would work.

  • Matt

    BWAHAHAHAHA! The producers should thank their lucky stars that the movie did as well as it did. What did they expect? Did they have focus groups that told them this would be a massive blockbuster? Conspiracy? Give me a break. I’m guessing that they are saying that a lot more people saw the movie than the weekend gross numbers would suggest. Ridiculous.

  • This is dumb. I like that “An American Carol” got made– not that I went out to see it. But did the producers really expect it to make a lot of money? No– this will have a better life on DVD. Actually, it probably should have been released straight to DVD.

  • Goon

    if Postal’s hype couldn’t save it on DVD, I don’t see any reason this would either. Then again, by the time this hits dvd it may be seen as ‘comfort food’ as they deal with McCains impending humiliating defeat.

  • Bob M

    I saw American Carol on Saturday night. It was funny but not great. I suppose it was on par with other lampoons of its type. I don’t think any movie of this type ever makes a killing at the box office.

    That being said, I was given a ticket stub for a different movie when I purchased tickets for American Carol. I read about the “ticket fraud” accusation on the internet after I got home and I still had the ticket stub in my pocket. Sure enough mine was for a different movie. At this theater you buy the ticket and go right in. No one collects the ticket which is in this case just a receipt.

    Was it ticket fraud or a conspiracy? Liberals would have to be mighty desperate to railroad a stupid movie of this type and the pimple faced teenagers behind the counter didn’t look like they had a political agenda.

    Still, it is a strange occurrence considering the other reports.

  • Better Right that Red

    Ok, so how many people on this post are crazy liberals, raise your hand. Oh, let’s see, all of you, surprise, surprise.

  • J

    The film was very funny! strip the political jokes and it was just a C+ or B-. But the political direction will make political liberals cringe and chuckle (if you can laugh at yourself – liberals can be whiny when people disagree with them and cry “closed-minded) and political Republicans laugh out loud and clap. Notice I said Republicans, I think many conservative libertarians and free-thinkers will disagree with points of the film but WHO CARES, its FUNNY! If you like the politically focused episodes of Southpark then I think you will like this film, Republican or not. This film is (a) for entertainment (b) geared toward political conservatives. That makes it possible to laugh WITH them or AT them. That is the great thing about comedy!

    One more note: The reason extreme conservatives seem to be so “conspiracy theory” oriented is because of the lack of objectivity in the media and in our culture. Being liberal seems to give you a free pass for inconsistency and a lack of logic. Mind you, there are many smart, logical political liberals, but the majority are idiots… However, when many political conservatives are idiots, all of a sudden they are back-woods, ignorant, gun-toting (like those who built this Country) jack-asses.

    This election there are millions voting for a guy based on race. Anyone saying anything about him has to tread lightly or you are a racist. I live in a University town with the local (non-university based) population predominantly African-American. I see tons of this bias liberal bigotry and it is never covered by the news (they won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole) but if some stupid, ignorant red-neck calls talk bad about “lazy blacks” everyone goes crazy shouting “racist.” Basically this ignorant white punk gets reamed (rightly so) while a presidential candidate can talk about “white folks greed” as if somehow greed is a racial issue.

    The media is bias folks, open your eyes! Fox is not “fair and balanced,” talk radio is predominantly conservative (duh) and CNN, CBS, NBC are clearly liberally bias (I took journalism in college, most media is liberally bias)

    Bottom line: Get past your own bias and your political bias and go see a funny movie!

  • Leroy Malone

    Yes…but the real ticket fraud occurred in the 4th weekend when nobody saw it.

    And Chris Farley is rolling in his grave at the stupidity of his brother. You can’t be more unfunny!