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The story
The movie Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island has been rolling out a set of six limited-edition admission bonuses, and distribution of the latest item, a “charm mini figure,” began on the 10th. AEON Cinema Kennō in Tsubame, Niigata Prefecture, took to its official X account with an unusual request: it will not accept cancellations for screenings from 11:15 AM on October 11 onward on the grounds that “I didn’t get the bonus.” On 5ch, the announcement drew comments framing it as a check on resellers who repeatedly attend just to collect bonuses, alongside remarks noting that customers already agree to a no-cancellation policy when buying tickets — while others raised concerns that the number of bonus items simply doesn’t match the number of seats available.
October 11 (Sun), 4:19 PM
The sixth wave of admission bonuses for the buzzy movie Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island (now in theaters) — a “charm mini figure” (two varieties) — started being handed out yesterday, the 10th. In response, the official X account of AEON Cinema Kennō, a theater in Tsubame, Niigata Prefecture, made an unusual appeal that has since become a talking point.
The post reads: “Regarding screenings of Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island from 11:15 AM on October 11 (Sun) onward, we are unable to accommodate cancellations on the grounds that ‘I didn’t get the bonus.’ Please be aware of this before purchasing your ticket. We look forward to welcoming you all to the theater!”
出典: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Guess the stickers are popular.
Personally they're the bonus item I care about least.
Do they even watch it?
Probably just grab the bonus and leave.
Factor in transportation or gas money and it's not even worth it.
Guess 5ch really is on the side of the 'monster customers.'
Well, 5ch is basically a gathering of "anti-profit" types (people who reflexively hate anyone making money). They'll exaggerate their own education or income, but can't stand it when someone else profits.
Including that point — I bet someone's going to go complain to the Consumer Affairs Agency about this.
Guess it's treated differently from transportation tickets.
Have you never bought a ticket before?
There's a confirmation button stating changes and cancellations are not allowed at all.
Anyone demanding a refund is just a complainer.
Looks rough fighting to survive *picks nose* (a dismissive "not my problem" gesture)
Yeah
And that means they're running short on bonuses
Still got plenty of room to grow then
It's the content that *isn't* selling that has to fight desperately to survive.
Chiikawa was already a massive hit as an IP business before the movie, so it doesn't need to bet everything on the film to survive.
Content that was never a hit in the first place doesn't even have the budget for lavish bonus items.
The point is about why they put out this statement.
Even if the IP itself is profitable, the theater should be raking it in hand over fist (lol), but getting hit with cancellations means a big loss for them.
So neither the theaters nor the production side are doing admission bonuses to "survive," right?
They're doing it to pile on an extra boost precisely *because* it's a hit.
It's not about survival — they survived ages ago.
This isn't about people who already canceled — it's aimed at customers whining and demanding to be allowed to cancel.
Updated 2026/10/11 17:20 — Latest daily detailed report (updated roughly every 20 min)
Rank Tickets sold (vs. prior) Seats (fill rate) vs. last week 95-min rate Full-day est. Movie title
*1 *78748(+1860) *90651(.928) 217.8% 47.5% *79144 Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island
*2 *63091(+1458) 111424(.804) 107.5% 61.1% *63783 Mom's No Longer in This World…
*3 *52483(+***0) 219960(.643) ****** 55.7% *52614 Resident Evil
*4 *46205(+1022) 209740(.788) ****** 60.8% *47113 You, Like the Stars (Nanji, Hoshi no Gotoku)
*5 *32006(+*347) *86894(.808) *78.7% 64.8% *32566 Bayside Shakedown N.E.W. …
The box-office bump from this particular bonus is under 400 million yen.
That's a different pace from the 1.7 billion yen bump during wave 4.
By the way, apparently there was a flash update putting it at 17.6 billion yen just now, but the road ahead looks pretty tough from here.
They're just limiting seat counts to match the bonus supply — a 99.3% occupancy rate (with only wheelchair seats consistently left empty) is a terrifyingly high fill rate, so if they had more bonus stock, this could still go a lot further.
Does it really not strike you as odd?
Setting this particular case aside —
why is it that on issues like this, you 5ch folks always side with the supplier instead of the user?
When you buy a ticket, it plainly states
"Changes and cancellations are not possible under any circumstances,"
and clicking the purchase button means you've agreed to that.
But I think what that guy's probably trying to say is something like, "why can't I just cancel freely, like returning something on Amazon?"
Honestly I don't even know where to start explaining (lol)
Huh, I see.
I've bought tickets before and then had plans fall through and just ate the loss — of course since I'd already agreed to the terms, I never went and demanded a cancellation or refund.
So even finding that questionable is weird, huh? Got it, thanks for engaging with me.
And it makes no sense to lure people in with a bonus and then say "sorry, no bonus."
Seems like it could run afoul of the Premiums and Representations Act (Japan's law against misleading promotions) — wonder how that shakes out.
If you know the bonus distribution date, that means you've seen the announcement page on X or the official site, right?
The bonus info page clearly states it could run out as early as the day it's released,
and there should be a notice at ticket purchase too — so on what basis would this violate the Premiums and Representations Act?
The official side just hypes it up beforehand saying it might run out on day one, that's all.
Honestly it feels like they're just disrespecting the theaters on the ground.
At least announce how many units they prepared.
Well, of course.
As a sales contract, what's being sold is the seat — the bonus isn't part of the contract.
Probably resellers or something pulling this kind of whining tactic.
If that logic flies, then this would also hold up:
"We'll include a gold bar as a bonus" → "Actually we couldn't source it, so never mind" (or "only the first 5 people get one, then we're done"), "but since the reservation is strictly a contract for the seat, we won't accept cancellations."
Oh really? Didn't know that.
I probably would've casually tried to cancel too, if it were a second-or-later viewing just for the bonus.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Movie admission bonuses are distributed in limited quantities, and theaters typically operate on the premise that supplies are capped — the official side itself has pre-announced that “the bonus items may run out quickly.” Ticket sales themselves constitute a contract for the use of a seat, and whether or not a bonus is included isn’t part of that contract, so changes or cancellations citing the bonus are not normally permitted. In the thread, most comments accepted the theater’s response as reasonable given this premise, though some called for operators to improve things — for instance, by matching the number of bonus items to the number of seats in advance, or by publicly disclosing how many units are being distributed. There were also posts alleging that some people use discounted tickets to attend repeatedly and resell the items, suggesting this kind of request could spread to other theaters as a structural issue facing bonus-driven marketing for popular franchises.
※本記事は5ch(芸スポ速報+)スレッド「[Chiikawa Movie] Theater Issues Unusual Appeal Over Admission Bonuses: “We Are Unable to Accommodate Cancellations on the Grounds of ‘I Didn’t Get the Bonus’”」より抜粋・要約して構成しています。
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