R-rated animated films are so rare, one theatre made a very big mistake with a new one. They played the trailer for the gross-out, R-rated CG film Sausage Party with Disney/Pixar’s PG-rated Finding Dory, and audiences were not pleased.
A still from Sausage Party, a film not for general audiences. Image: Sony
The Brenden Concord 14 in Concord, California, was the offending theatre and offered up an apology for the mishap after many filmgoers complained. The theatre chain’s VP of operations, Walter Eichinger made this statement to the East Bay Times:
Playing that trailer was a one-time honest mistake by a theatre manager moving screens around in effort to accommodate several large last-minute groups wanting to see Dory
Oh, so it’s DORY‘s FAULT HUH?!?!
The wrong movie was started by mistake. It was caught soon, but not until the trailer played. We regret it, apologise for it, and we are not happy that it happened. We fully realise this trailer is not appropriate for Dory and we would never schedule something like that. The trailer for Sausage Party is not and never has been scheduled with Dory.
To be fair, it probably was an honest mistake. A funny one for sure, but understandable.
There hasn’t been a wide-release R-rated animated film since South Park in 1999. You have to imagine many theatre employees weren’t even been born when that happened. There are 17-year-olds who have literally never lived in a world where animated films released on thousands of screens aren’t automatically for kids. So, yeah, this makes sense.
Here’s the green band trailer for Sausage Party that most likely played in that theatre. Thankfully it wasn’t the red band.