Neon organised a competition in which contestants watched a new horror movie as many times as they could for up to 36 hours.
It Ends is a new horror movie directed by Alexander Ullom in their directorial debut. The film follows a group of four college graduates who find themselves on a never-ending highway.
In a bizarre marketing tactic, Neon, the film’s distributor, organised an endurance contest in New York that saw participants spend 36 hours watching the film on repeat, in the hopes of winning a cash prize.
The screening room resembled “a nuclear bunker”
The cinephiles were handpicked through video applications and organized into teams of four. They had to stay in the cinema, only leaving for toilet breaks, while the movie played on a loop.
Each contestant was allowed to bring in their own snacks and drinks, and were given $250 for theater concessions, excluding alcohol. Contestants could rack up 25 cents per minute with an upper limit of $540 per person. Those who survived the full 36 hours were given a $500 bonus.
Fola Olusanya, a 27-year-old contestant, arrived with blankets, water bottles, cough drops, Tylenol, a handheld fan, and other home comforts. “The hardest part of the night was the crazy headache I had,” she told The Independent.
24-year-old Veronica Giligan was one of the competition’s winners, completing 24 viewings and bagging $1,040 per person. “Going into the screening, my group made an agreement that we would not be leaving before the 36 hours were up,” she said. “And I’m proud to say we did, in fact, last the whole time.”
For more on movies, check out our coverage of Obsession becoming the biggest movie of the summer, or the Backrooms director’s potential Portal movie.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
