Need some news that’s positive and wholesome? You can find it through an unfiltered, ultra-violent, exploitative movie! IndieWire is shedding light on an interesting marketing tactic used by Macon Blair’s The Toxic Avenger remake. The movie, which was delayed for a long period, added some incentive to get people to come see it in theaters. Ticket sales would help go to relieving individuals from medical debt.
The remake of the Troma classic had relieved at least $5 million in medical debt through a hefty donation from Cineverse that the film’s ticket sales would supplement. According to IndieWire, “For every additional $1 million The Toxic Avenger made in theaters, another million in medical bills would also disappear. The patients the campaign would help came from a wide pool of people in need — with debt resold at a fire-sale price.” After three weeks, The Toxic Avenger would help Cineverse to dissolve at least $7 million in medical debt. The final total would move closer to $8 million in erased debt.
Daniel Lempert, vice president of communications and marketing at the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, stated that, “One dollar, on average, erases around a hundred dollars or more of medical debt.” He added, “Medical debt tends to be the cheapest of the debts.” This is “because the demands on people, to pay for healthcare through a copayment or a deductible, are increasing.” Lauren McCarthy, senior vice president of marketing at Cineverse, said, “It took us a while to wrap our heads around that math. But it was one of the most exciting parts of the process [promoting this film], hearing that all this was possible.”
Blair’s version of The Toxic Avenger centers on Winston Gooze, a stereotypical weakling who works as a janitor at Garb-X health club and is diagnosed with a terminal illness that can only be cured by an expensive treatment that his greedy, power hungry employer refuses to pay for. After deciding to take matters into his own hands and rob his company, Winston falls into a pit of toxic waste and is transformed into a deformed monster that sets out to do good and get back at all the people who have wronged him.
Peter Dinklage plays Winston Gooze and is joined in the cast by Kevin Bacon as villainous corporate overlord Bob Garbinger; Elijah Wood as Bob’s brother Fritz Garbinger, who is described as “sort of Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Danny DeVito Penguin mixed together”; Taylour Paige as investigative reporter / vigilante detective JJ Doherty; Jacob Tremblay as Winston’s stepson Wade; Jonny Coyne as a “shadowy criminal figure”; Sarah Niles as a “corrupt city official”; Julia Davis as an unspecified character; and Blair as a guy named Dennis.
