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| Lotte Cinema's World Tower branch in southeastern Seoul / Courtesy of Lotte |
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It was fortunate for Lotte that Tom Cruise did not witness the disorganized press preview of his latest movie.
The screening of the forthcoming film "Mission: Impossible ― Fallout" was interrupted twice at Lotte Cinema World Tower in southeastern Seoul Monday night.
At that time, the Hollywood star and his colleagues were meeting Korean fans on the red carpet laid out on the first floor of Lotte World Tower.
While Cruise was expressing his gratitude to his Korean fans, the movie screening began at 8:30 p.m., but employees discovered after five minutes the sound system was not working in the small 124-seat theater. Reporters attending the screening could barely hear the iconic background music and sound effects.
The employees decided to rewind the movie, after spending a few minutes fixing the system.
The screening, however, was stopped again after about an hour.
After skipping several scenes, the multiplex cinema resumed screening, but the sound system had more problems.
Baffled employees spent another 20 minutes deciding whether to resume the screening or cancel the event.
What is worse, the air conditioner went out so reporters suffered in the sweltering heat while Lotte Cinema employees agonized over their decision. Seoul's temperature was around 24 degrees Celsius that night.
Although the cinema resumed the film after rebooting its system, reporters were confused with the poor service at the nation's largest multiplex cinema which has 21 theaters, collectively having 4,603 seats.
As the event was delayed more than 30 minutes, some of the reporters left the theater even before the end of the movie, saying, "I will watch the rest of it at CGV."
Lotte, as the Korean importer and distributor of the blockbuster movie, has been trying to take advantage of Korea's enthusiasm for the film series. It also invited 2,000 customers to a preview screening at a larger theater in Lotte Cinema World Tower, Tuesday. This event was attended by actors and the director of the film.
However, Lotte Cinema may lose viewers to its rival, CJ CGV, if it suffers the same mistakes again.
According to the film industry, the last three movies of the "Mission: Impossible" series each attracted more than 5 million viewers, and the total number of viewers for the five movies reached 21.3 million.
Considering the fever, Korea was picked for the world premiere of the latest sequel on July 25.
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