Lights! Camera! Weirdness! Don't Miss Out, Regal Says

When a pool-ghoul levitates across your backyard and barfs in your face, you darn well better pay attention! The freak's message: Don't miss out on seeing movies at Regal Cinemas.

Quality Meats and Andy Richter made odd, silly spots for the theater chain that play on the notion of FOMO to lure stay-at-home viewers. Richter—yes Conan O'Brien's former sidekick—directs these quirky quickies that lampoon movie genres.

If such weird-ass stuff happened at my house, I'd run screaming to the local multiplex for sure. It's probably safer there!

"Movie theaters are gathering places where viewers collectively experience important events in pop culture. You’re fully immersed in a story projected on a big screen the way it was intended," says Regal creative director Rodney Griffin. "If you wait to watch at home, you're missing out on being a part of that moment."

"We wanted these to be funny enough to jar people into going to the movies, much like how the characters jar the people in the spots into agreeing to go," Griffin says.

So ... which spot spoofs Barbie?

"It was a lot of fun to bring these over-the-top movie trope characters to life," Quality Meats co-CCO/co-founder Gordy Sang tells Muse. "Andy is a hilarious human being and a lot of fun to work with. He also had experience getting projectile vomited on by a possessed girl from Scary Movie 2."

"The puke cannon somewhat malfunctioned on-set and caused that odd false-start puke that stopped and then started again," Sang recalls. "It was not intended for the commercial, but it was too funny not to use."

Agency co-founder Brian Sieband cameos in "BBQ," acing the line, "Ow, my arm!"

The campaign hit (small) screens last week, running across connected TV and social media.

CREDITS

Agency: Quality Meats
Production Company: Story
Director: Andy Richter
DP: Andrew Wehde
Executive Producer: Cliff Grant
Special FX Makeup: Kosart Studios 
Editorial/VFX/Color: 11 Dollar Bill
Sound: Floodgates Audio