The magic of a movie theater isn't always magic after all, or so a bunch of theatergoers found out when they tried to attend a theatrical screening of The Grinch chronicled in a viral TikTok.
Patrons watched in disbelief as the Amazon Prime Video home screen and FireTV functionalities showed up on their movie theater's screen while they waited for the movie to begin airing.
At one point, the operator of the theater even searches for the title The Grinch using the search function.
The best part was for close to 35 minutes, theater employees could not figure out how to get the movie going.
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An error message finally appeared on the screen, saying the theater had maxxed out the amount of movies it was allowed to have playing at one time.
Theatergoers can be heard simultaneously laughing and groaning at the error message.
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The video has racked up 7 million views.
People noted while the person working was most definitely not at fault for the error message, the theater was illegally showing films.
The FBI's anti-piracy warning forbids it.
"The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illegal."
"Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000."
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The event and the location where it took place are unclear, but the original poster of the video noted it was a local theater rather than a large franchise.
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@rachel.m00re/TikTok
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@rachel.m00re/TikTok
The original poster noted while tickets were only $2 for the movie, the theater ended up paying $4 to rent the HD version of the Jim Carrey version of the movie.
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