A group of cinemagoers had the ultimate Holdovers immersive experience when they got locked inside a theater

Dominic Sessa and Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers
(Image credit: Focus Features)

Cinemagoers watching The Holdovers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, found themselves having a more immersive viewing experience than planned when they were locked inside a theater earlier this week.

A group of movie theater patrons were trapped inside the cinema in Brazil's capital city after employees forgot they were in there and locked up for the night. According to Brazilian publication O Globo, customers first realized something was amiss when the lights didn't come back up after the movie finished. They managed to make their way through the darkness to the cinema foyer, where they eventually attracted the attention of passersby and staff at another cinema on the same street.

In Brazil, the movie's title has been translated as 'Os Rejeitados', which means The Rejected. "At that moment, we just wanted freedom," one attendee told O Globo. "We didn't know how to proceed. It was as if we were orphans there… We had just watched the movie The Rejected. And we feel like this: rejected."

The Holdovers follows the students at a boarding school in '70s New England who are forced to stay on campus over the Christmas break as they have nowhere else to go. Paul Giamatti plays the history teacher who's forced to chaperone them and he's been nominated for an Oscar for his performance, as well as winning a Golden Globe. His co-star Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who plays the school cook, won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, and she's also up for an Academy Award.

The Holdovers is out now. For more viewing inspiration, check out our picks of the biggest upcoming movies on the way in 2024. 

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism. 

Read more
It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This
New found footage horror movie is getting major attention from film buffs for the most unlikely reason – the filmmakers say it’ll never be released online
I'm Still Here
Oscars Best Picture nominee I'm Still Here tells a powerful, hidden story of Brazil's past – and it's been championed by everyone from Guillermo del Toro to Alfonso Cuarón
Demi Moore as Elisabeth in The Substance
Have a spare 24 hours? You can watch almost every 2025 Oscars Best Picture nominee at selected theaters in a special marathon
Tatiana Maslany as 'Lois' in Osgood Perkins' horror-comedy The Monkey
The Monkey post-credits scene explained: does the new horror movie have a post-credits scene?
Calliana Liang as Chloe in Steven Soderbergh's new horror-drama Presence
New haunted house horror Presence is unlike anything you've seen before – and cements Steven Soderbergh as one of our most interesting filmmakers
Red Rooms
One of 2024's best horror movies is now available to watch on streaming, and it has an almost perfect Rotten Tomatoes score
Latest in Drama Movies
Claire Danes as Juliet and Miriam Margolyes as Nurse in the movie Romeo + Juliet.
The 33 greatest movies based on Shakespeare
Bloodsport
The 32 greatest '80s action movies
Cosmo Jarvis
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey adds Shogun star to its massively star-studded cast, and I'm getting Oppenheimer vibes all over again
Adrien Brody in The Brutalist
This year's Best Actor Oscars speech broke a record that was over 80 years old
Adrien Brody as László Tóth in The Brutalist
Oscars 2025 live coverage: All the winners, red carpet, and the 97th Academy Awards' biggest moments – as it happens
The Last Showgirl
Beneath the glitz and glam of The Last Showgirl is a heartbreaking story about what mothers give up
Latest in News
inZOI Character Studio screenshot showing a young woman with short black/pink hair, black cat-like ears, and a black blouse with a bowtie
The creator of upcoming life sim Inzoi says he was "recklessly brave to even think about creating a game of this scale"
Rise of the Ronin
A year after its PS5 launch, Rise of the Ronin debuts on PC to "Mixed" reviews and performance complaints: "Stuttering on a 4090 is just... no"
Rise of the Ronin's photo mode offers some wonderful shots
On the heels of Rise of the Ronin's PC launch, its director says there's a "significant" amount of Japanese Switch gamers: "I am closely watching how this will change with the release of Switch 2"
Stardew Valley Castle Village mod
Stardew Valley Expanded creator is building an "even more ambitious" mod with a whole new city and "dungeons inspired by The Legend of Zelda"
Dino Crisis 2 art showing a young woman and man back-to-back amid tall green grass, both with their weapons drawn
Dino Crisis gets a fresh trademark filing by Capcom, but it might not mean the 26-year-old survival horror franchise will get a new installment like fans expect
Cujo
Netflix is making a brand new adaptation of Cujo, the infamous Stephen King book about a killer dog