'Veronica Mars' Fans Offered Refunds After Download Issues

'Veronica Mars' Fans Offered Refunds After Download Issues
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Kristen Bell in a scene from the film, "Veronica Mars." (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures, Robert Voets)
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Kristen Bell in a scene from the film, "Veronica Mars." (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures, Robert Voets)

"Veronica Mars" was never the most-watched show on television, and its film adaptation followed suit: released in 291 locations on Friday, "Veronica Mars" grossed $2.1 million at the weekend box office, good for 10th place overall. While not necessarily impressive, "Veronica Mars" was a success in and of itself: the lowly rated series turned Kickstatert-funded feature had a higher per-screen average than all but one other movie in the top 10 (Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel"). Fans seemed happy, too, provided they could actually watch the movie they helped to exist.

As part of the "Veronica Mars" release, Warner Bros. also pushed Rob Thomas' film out via on-demand providers. For Kickstarter backers who donated $35 to the cause, that meant using Flixster/Ultraviolet. Unfortunately, the service didn't work as well as everyone had hoped:

"Tried to get the movie streamed/downloaded on several devices and ended up wasting [five] hours and still didn’t get to watch the movie on release day," one backer wrote on the "Mars" Kickstarter site (via EW.com). "This has really tainted what had been until now a really positive experience."

Following multiple complaints, Thomas took to the Kickstarter page to comment on the issue:

We understand that some of you prefer other platforms or services for watching digital content. If you contact our Customer Support team, they can help.

If you paid for a copy of the movie a year ago, we don't want you to have less choice and freedom than people who decide to buy it today. And we definitely don't want you to end up paying twice just to see the movie on your preferred service.

Please know that Warner Bros have given Customer Support a lot of freedom to help make things right, so if you're having issues, please let them know: they'll do their best to either help get Flixster working to your satisfaction, or, if you prefer, to provide an alternate solution.

Now, let's take a few minutes to talk about the movie we just released together.

While Thomas never explicitly mentioned a refund, EW.com reported that the option was on the table for Kickstarter backers who experienced download issues, as was reimbursement.

In a statement released on Saturday, Warner Bros. acknowledged some issues with Flixster and noted that measures were being taken to ensure fans had the ability to see the film despite the technical problems.

Backers who had technical issues were assisted directly by the Veronica Mars customer support team while those who expressed a preference to have the film on a different format received the communication below offering to reimburse them for the cost of purchasing the film in that format. We are, of course, working diligently to ensure that all the Veronica Mars backers have a great experience.

For more on "Veronica Mars," head to EW.com and Variety.

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