The Toxic Avenger remake is out in theaters right now. Since it was an unrated release on just under 2,000 screens, it didn’t exactly bust the box office wide open. The scuzzy sendup of superheroes opened in the #11 spot and only managed to take in $2.2 million over the Labor Day weekend. But, I’m going to make a point to go see The Toxic Avenger in the movie theater because the folks behind the film’s distribution have done something so amazing that it can only be described as heroic.
Instead of spending their $5 million marketing budget on more TV spots or talk show appearances, Cineverse and Bloody Disgusting took that money intended for marketing and donated it to the non-profit organization Undue Medical Debt. That’s right, thanks to The Toxic Avenger, $5 million will go towards paying for outrageous medical debt that is crushing the lives of innocent people.
Now that’s something you can actually call heroic, but there’s an even better part.
The Toxic Avenger Box Office Wipes Out More Medical Debt
Cineverse and Bloody Disgusting have also pledged that for every $1 million The Toxic Avenger makes at the box office, they will donate another $1 million to Undue Medical Debt. That means that even though it did not set the box office on radioactive fire, there is still another guaranteed $2 million that will be donated to help folks get out from the supervillainy of capitalistic healthcare. So, that’s one reason I want to give my money to this wild movie.
Admittedly, I love the original The Toxic Avenger and even own the four original films on 4K Blu-ray. But as much affinity as I might have for those entries, this decision by Cineverse and Bloody Disgusting endears me to the new Toxie in a big way. In the remake, the lead character played by Peter Dinklage is himself burdened by crippling medical debt. The idea to make a change in the real world based on something from the movie embodies the entire inspirational spirit of superhero movies.
Why Aren’t More Studios Doing This?
Frankly, I’m surprised bigger studio releases aren’t doing more in this vein. The Toxic Avenger has now set a precedent that should become the norm. Instead of wasting oodles of cash on getting their stars on morning show panels or ridiculous stunts like having M3GAN models showing up at a sporting event, movie studios should be promoting these kinds of ideas for their movies. Could you imagine the kind of response you’d get from this if The Fantastic Four: First Steps or Superman spent a fraction of their gargantuan marketing budgets on something like smashing medical debt?
I know, I’m sure there are plenty of charitable organizations and efforts that movie studios partner with and do things with, but it’s worth noting that The Toxic Avenger didn’t have to do that. It wasn’t baked into their movie’s release plan. They chose to do it because it felt like the right thing to do for a character like Toxie. Superhero stories should inspire the better angels of our nature, and actually doing good in the world with your superhero movie goes a long way in making that statement. So yeah, I’m gonna go see The Toxic Avenger in theaters and you should too so we can get it up to $3 million at the box office and get another $1 million donated to Undue Medical Debt.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
