Movie offered viewers $1,000,000 if they could find real-life ‘stash’ from clues in the film
Topics: Film and TV, Nostalgia, Money, US News
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
Topics: Film and TV, Nostalgia, Money, US News
People were given the chance to get their hands of $1 million cash as part of a very unique marketing campaign for a film.
The film in question was titled Million Dollar Mystery and hit theaters in the US in 1987.
The movie was about a man named Sidney Preston who stole $4 million from the government. He split the cash into four $1 million piles and hides them in different locations.
While on the run from the cops, Sidney stopped at a local diner to eat and it was here were he had a heart attack.
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Telling the people around him about his situation as he's dying, Sidney shared the locations of where the money is hidden.
Those in the diner who heard Sidney's sentiments then all scramble to try find the money first.
Coming up to the end of the movie, three of the four wads of cash are discovered. It was then revealed that the fourth pile was actually put aside for movie-goers to find themselves.
In the closing credits, audiences were told at the time that, to find the money, they needed to follow the clues in specially marked in Glad-Lock bags (who sponsored the movie).
Ultimately, 14-year-old Alesia Lenae Jones of Bakersfield, California, was the lucky winner who worked out where the cash was.
It had been hidden in the bridge of the nose of the Statue of Liberty, news outlets reported at the time.
Jones was amongst thousands of people to correctly guess where the loot was being kept. With this in mind, all their names were put into a hat and the teenager's name happened to be drawn.
While it was a great idea, the million-dollar giveaway turned out being more than Million Dollar Mystery made at the box office.
It's said to have had a whopping $10 million budget, for it to only make $989,033. Ouch.
As well as being a financial flop, the movie was also slated by critics.
At the time of writing, Million Dollar Mystery has a 0 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Reviewers on IMDb have been a little less harsh, however, and the movie currently boasts a score of 5.1/10 on the site.
After being poorly received, Million Dollar Mystery became Academy Award-winning director Richard Fleisher's final feature-length film.
He was best know for films like Design for Death, The Happy Time, The Vikings, and Compulsion.