It’s the final week of marketing and promotion for The Toxic Avenger, and the teams here at Cineverse and Bloody Disgusting have decided to do something a little different. Rather than spending the rest of our marketing budget on a stunt or campaign, we’ve decided instead to join forces with the non-profit Undue Medical Debt for a much more important cause.
When director Macon Blair’s The Toxic Avenger storms into theaters this weekend, he won’t just be melting faces on screen — he’ll also be melting medical debt in real life.
In the fresh new take on Troma’s cult classic, arriving in theaters August 29, Toxie has his life upended by unexpected medical debt. It’s for that reason that we’re working with Undue Medical Debt to quite literally erase medical debt for real people here in the real world.
At least $5 million in medical debt gets erased no matter what. And for every million bucks the movie makes at the box office, another million in debt will go up in toxic smoke.
This debt relief is possible thanks to a partnership between Cineverse and Undue Medical Debt, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping families least able to pay burdensome healthcare debt.
“We spent hours brainstorming how to close out the campaign and, while sending Toxie to the moon was appealing, no idea came close to combating unexpected medical debt for families,” said Cineverse SVP of Marketing Lauren McCarthy. “The Toxic Avenger had his entire life upended by crushing medical costs so, as Toxie says, ‘Sometimes you have to do something’.”
“As the medical debt crisis continues to grow we’re grateful for this partnership with The Toxic Avenger film, which is not only funding debt relief but also shining a light on the human impact of a broken system,” said Marisa Clemente, Vice President of Philanthropy at Undue Medical Debt. “We are always looking to team up with real-life superheroes who support our mission — including movie lovers, who now have an easy way to enjoy a reimagined classic while supporting financially and emotionally burdened families.”
The nonprofit leverages donations to purchase qualifying medical debt (for individuals four times or below the federal poverty level or who have medical debt that is 5% or more of annual income) in bulk from providers like hospitals and also collection agencies for pennies on the dollar meaning one dollar donated, on average, erases $100 of un-payable medical debt. Recipients of debt relief then receive an Undue branded envelope in the mail out of the blue with the good news: some or all of their medical debt has been erased.
Cineverse is relieving at least $5 million in medical debt across the country, where needed most, with our own donation, with ticket sales leading to unlimited additional donations.
Learn more about Undue Medical Debt with their explainer video and FAQ and then check out the official Toxic Avenger campaign page here.
Undue Medical Debt is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2014 by former debt collectors. To date Undue has acquired — and abolished — over $22 billion of burdensome medical debt, helping over 14 million families and addressing a major social determinant of health. Undue purchases unpayable debts for a fraction of their face value in bundled portfolios and partners with individuals, faith-based organizations, local and state governments, foundations, corporations and many others to empower donors by converting every dollar contributed into $100 of medical debt relief on average.
Undue partners with hospitals, health systems and physician groups to acquire medical debt for abolishment. Undue rose to national prominence on an episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver in which Undue facilitated the abolishment of $15M in medical debt.
