Up to now, I’ve just been reporting ‘The Facts, Mam’ on the Brandywine Regal (DE) situation involving the ‘Birth of a Nation’ movie. Now it’s time to break it all down for you.

The Break Down

It started with the damning video; moved to the social media explosion of the video; then moved to pulling the movie from the theater (or at least pulling the listing for the movie from the newspaper); to binging the movie back; to attending a sold out ‘Birth of a Nation’ at the theater full of Chester folks.

In some worlds, that would be the end of the story. However, this story is just getting started.

The Set-Up

Hardworking entrepreneur, Devon Walls, takes a break from the hustle and bustle of his grind to relax and enjoy a midweek movie on an ordinary Tuesday night. He’s told the movie is sold out only to find the theater nearly empty. After viewing the movie, he innocently asked the theater employees why the show is listed as sold out with an empty theater.

The Innocents

Devon first approached the ticket takers. We can imagine these innocent employees are very young and very good at doing what they’re instructed to do. They simply told Devon that they were told to say the movie was sold out. Devon then approached the innocent box office clerk with his cell phone camera rolling to capture the audio portion of their conversation. Ms. Clerk said she couldn’t sell him a ticket because her computer screen listed the show as sold out. You can’t expect a computer to produce a ticket to a sold out show. That would constitute and poorly written computer program and chaos if more tickets are sold than seats allow. However, she did the right thing and asked if Devon would like to speak to a manager.

The Fumbler

He identified himself as one of the managers and obviously he was the wrong manager. Our guy, Manager James, is probably good at resolving stale popcorn and flat soda complaints, or maybe something related to Regal Theater discount card disputes, but he clearly wasn’t ready to answer the questions Devon shot at him about the sold out status of the movie. He fumbled and stumbled so badly that I don’t think he remembered what he said without watching the video himself.

The Inquisitor

The star of the video is Devon Walls. He wasn’t looking to take down the Brandywine Regal empire. He asked simple questions. It wasn’t a case of ‘gotcha’ journalism in an attempt to trap or trick or deceive or expose. Devon’s inquiry was basic – “Why is the movie listed as sold old with only 2 people in the theater?”

The Fall Guy

Clearly, Manager James didn’t have a clear response. By the sound of his voice, he didn’t appear to be out of his 20s and was obviously intimidated by an articulate, athletically built black man, wearing a military style jacket, seeking a direct answer to a direct line of questioning. I think that once Devon called him a liar, Manager James just lost it and wished he could either have a ‘do-over’ or the ability to call a life line. Hopefully, Manager James wasn’t fired. He clearly wasn’t prepared to handle this situation and a week of good conflict management training should be enough to get him up to speed.

The Regal Response

A few of the alleged employees have written comments on this blog regarding their version of what really happened with the empty theater being sold out. None of it makes much sense, but most Monday Morning quarterbacks sound silly anyway. Nothing official has been released from the corporate big shots at Regal, that I know of. They probably flew in on the Regal corporate jet to have a sit down with the Brandywine Regal employees to instruct them how to respond if a situation like this walks into their theater again. My guess is that ticket takers are to remain silent. Box office clerks will continue to seek managers but will describe the situation so Manager James isn’t summoned when the theater’s general manager is the one to take on issues of theater operations.

The Birth of a Nation Response

If Manager James is recorded saying there was a sold out show, ‘Birth of a Nation’ should be looking for a sold out check from the theater. If ‘Birth’ was actually showing on Friday and Saturday with no show times listed in the local paper, ‘Birth’ should be sending an invoice to the theater for a few more sold out shows. I’m sure the two of them can work something out along those lines.

The Chester movie night dilemma

Overall, the real sold out show where Devon bought out the theater for his Chester pals to join him Tuesday night to see ‘Birth’ was a rousing success. However, a few things caught my eye. First, I wanted to take some photos of our crowd beside the ‘Birth of a Nation’ movie poster hanging in the theater. There was no ‘Birth of a Nation’ poster anywhere in the theater. I’ve never witnessed that before.

Next, there were employees walking through the theater with their flashlights at various times throughout the show. I don’t know what they were looking for. They definitely weren’t helping people to their seats because after about 10 minutes after the movie started, no one else came in. I’ve never seen employees walk through a theater during any movie I’ve attend – but, I don’t get out much so it may be a new thing.

The Press

Somehow, mainstream media has totally missed this story. The entertainment media like TMZ, VH1, MTV, BET, has covered it, but the local, regional, and national print and electronic media outlets are pretending like nothing is worth reporting on here. However, today I read, view, and hear everywhere that a black church burned in the south with Vote Trump spray painted on the wall. What makes that story more relevant for the country to see than a story of blatant malfeasance by a major movie house toward a black movie? As Arsenio would say, “Makes you wanna say, ummm!”

The Take Away

The good news is that ‘Birth of a Nation’ has received a rebirth as a result of the millions of people who are following this story. I imagine ticket sales have spiked from those who are now more compelled to see the movie than before. Hopefully, national movie chains have become more careful how they operate in fear of copy-cat Devon Walls type characters showing up in their theaters.

Conclusion

This story has legs. I expect we’ll be hearing more in weeks and months to come.