West Edmonton Mall
Movie Gets Panned
David Bodamer
December 5th, 2007
Christmas in Wonderland, a new movie that we wrote about in May filmed largely at the West Edmonton Mall is not getting good reviews so far. Even worse is that it's mostly getting ignored by critics. Just a handful of papers even bothered to review it. And it's only enjoying a limited release in the U.S. right now-in about 1,000 theaters.
It's also having some distribution problems in Canada. That created an awkward situation since there was a danger that the movie wouldn't even be shown at the property where it was filmed in time for the holiday shopping season. Luckily, mall management was able to work out a deal to get the film shown. But it will be the only place in Canada where you can see it.
Still, this has to be a disappointing outcome. The mall company turned over huge sections of the property over to the film shoot and had hoped the movie would provide residuals in future years based on annual promotions showing the film and selling the DVD throughout the property. It's not looking like things are going to work out that way.
To see the actual entry — and follow the links — go to the Traffic Court blog at blog.retailtrafficmag.com/retail_traffic_court/.