Abusing Ourselves to Death: Neil Postman was mostly right

Mr. Sean Gamble, President and Chief Executive Officer
Cinemark Holdings, Inc.
3900 Dallas Parkway
Plano, TX 75093-7865

RE: Abusing Ourselves to Death

Dear Mr. Gamble:

At approximately 9:50 P.M., Friday, September 20, 2024, I purchased two tickets at the Cedar Park, Texas Cinemark box office. Cinemark advertised online, displayed at the box office, and on the lobby marquee, that showtime for Reagan, the movie we expected to see, was 10:15 P.M. that evening.

We entered Theater 11 at approximately 9:55 P.M.

Shortly after 10:00 P.M. the screen was illuminated and we were inundated with non-stop infomercials, commercials, and movie previews, several of which were highly offensive, distressing and an assault on rational thought. We were eagerly anticipating their end and for the movie to begin at 10:15 P.M.. But by 10:40 P.M. we had reached our limit on Cinemark’s attempts at psychological manipulation with this ceaseless, vacuous overload.

With commercials and previews continuing, and no indication of when the movie we had paid to see would begin, we departed Theater 11 and headed to the box office. We spoke with the manager, who, without hesitation, refunded the full price of our tickets. He is to be commended for his professionalism and understanding of our frustration with Cinemark’s false advertising regarding movie start time.

He and other employees bear the brunt of public ire due to corporate policies to monetize every second of advertising to a captive audience. Our tickets would have helped pay his wages for one hour.

Although I received a refund on the price of admission, I will never recover the time that was anticipated to be a memorable experience with my wife, nor the time and money spent to travel to the Cinemark and sit through 40 minutes of banality, which we cannot un-see or un-hear. Perhaps Neil Postman missed by one letter what should have been the correct title of his classic, Amusing Ourselves to Death.

How many other potential viewers of the acclaimed Reagan have walked out or avoided Cinemark’s advertising abuse altogether? This experience makes it highly unlikely we will ever visit another movie theater, especially a Cinemark-owned brand.

Sincerely,

Donald N. Stroud

cc:

Mark Joseph, CEO, MJM Entertainment Group
Kevin Mitchell, Mr. Richie Fay, Mr. Scott Kennedy, ShowBiz Direct
Sean McNamara, Director, Reagan
Dennis Quaid
Rawhide Pictures LLC