Social media users across Facebook have come to complain about ticket scams and hacks they experienced when trying to purchase tickets for the Armenian Genocide-themed movie “The Promise”, a representative from the Armenian National Committee of America said in a Facebook post.
The war drama centers on a love story involving a medical student (Oscar Isaac), a journalist (Christian Bale), and the Armenian woman (Charlotte Le Bon) who steals their hearts. All three find themselves grappling with the Ottomans’ decision to begin rounding up and persecuting Armenians during the first genocide of the 20th century.
“Theaters in Boston, Framingham and Racine are experiencing in-advance sales, followed by late refund requests by purchasers of these sales, resulting in half-empty venues,” Aram Suren Hamparian said.
“Troubling, but not surprising, given Ankara’s shameful legacy of denial – from Capitol Hill all the way to Hollywood,” Hamparian said, suggesting that Turkish trolls are behind the scams.
One moviegoer said all the best seats were sold out as he was trying to buy tickets one week before the actual screening.
“I bought seats along the sides of the theater for my family. At the movie, every single one of the best seats were empty when we got there. When we asked the theater why a sold-out movie would have every single one of its best seats empty, they simply told us ‘it seems like those seats were purchased and refunded at the request of those who bought them.’ This way, people who want to see the movie cannot see it, yet the record will show at the end of the day that the movie was only barely half-full,” Dikran Kherlopian from Framingham said in a Facebook post.
As reported earlier, the picture appeared to be the target of a concerted campaign by Turkish cyber trolls who hoped to destroy it before it is widely released in cinemas.
The film currently has more than 120,000 reviews on IMDB.com, the online movie ranking website. That is almost double the number of reviews for Beauty and the Beast, which was released last month and seen by millions around the world.