How A Cancelled Jim Carrey Movie Earned One Fan $5,000 From Nintendo

Of all the cultural legacies that the 1990s have left us, one of the most dubious is the trend of offering contests and sweepstakes that either have no prize or were made to never be won. When the story surrounding the McMillions scandal broke in 2018, many a '90s kid was both nostalgic and insulted to discover that the Monopoly peel-and-win game presented by McDonald's restaurants had been a cleverly rigged scam. The story was potent enough to draw some attention from Hollywood, and while a proposed film version from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon has yet to materialize, the scandal was covered in an HBO docuseries, "McMillion$" in 2020.

Never mind board games; some of the most notorious no-prize contests came from the world of video games and cinema. A fair number of these weren't rigged scams like the Monopoly scandal, but rather victims of abandoned projects or bankrupt corporations. YouTuber The Angry Video Game Nerd made a video detailing the aborted contest surrounding a series of games from Atari in the 1980s called "SwordQuest," which was never completed and had no winner due in large part to Atari going under during the video game crash of 1983. Meanwhile, several sweepstakes offering a grand prize of a walk-on role in an upcoming feature film ended up welching on their winners because the film itself never materialized. This happened in 2001, when a promotional contest for OnStar offered a winner a walk-on part in the next "Batman" movie, a prize that was never honored thanks to a proposed "Batman" sequel eventually turning into Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" reboot four years later.

Both Hollywood and the video game industry joined forces to create one of the most notorious sweepstakes fails in their respective histories. In October of 1995, an ad in an issue of Nintendo Power offered readers the chance to win a walk-on role in "The Mask II," the follow-up to the Jim Carrey-starring film from 1994. Of course, a "Mask II" starring Carrey never happened, yet the winner of the contest did end up receiving a different prize: $5,000 from Nintendo themselves.

When "The Mask" was released in the summer of 1994 by the then-indie distributor New Line Cinema and made $351.6 million on a $18-23 million budget, it seemed a sequel would be inevitable. New Line was already big into franchises, having built its success on the back of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, and director Chuck Russell was enjoying his success with an all-ages PG-13 comedy after making two successful (albeit gloriously gory) horror films, the third "ANOES" and the remake of "The Blob." When it came to New Line teaming up with Nintendo Power to run their contest in conjunction with the release of the Super Nintendo video game of the film, it seemed a given that a sequel was just around the corner.

However, the success of "The Mask" didn't merely spawn interest in more adventures of Stanley Ipkiss and his magical mask, but fast-tracked its stars and director into bigger and more attractive projects right away. Russell was courted by Arnold Schwarzenegger to make "Eraser," co-star Cameron Diaz was tapped for a number of indie and comedy films, and Carrey's star essentially exploded thanks to not just "The Mask" but all of his work in 1994, landing him a plum role in "Batman Forever." In short, around the time the contest was being run, a "Mask" sequel seemed like a low priority for any of its principal filmmakers.

However, for Mr. Nathan Ryan Runk of Arbutus, MD, hope for a sequel was at the forefront of his mind. Not only had he been informed of his winning the contest just two months after it had run, but according to this piece from Destructoid from 2015, the then-managing editor of Nintendo Power kept in contact with him to keep him abreast of the sequel's progress. Finally, on November 4th, 1996, Nathan was told that the sequel was indefinitely postponed, and he was allegedly gifted some SNES games and a crew jacket for "The Mask II." (Runk's claim of receiving this latter gift seems dubious, because why would New Line make crew jackets for a film that never entered production? It's a mystery!)

Although Runk certainly missed out on meeting and working with Jim Carrey, he fortunately had the contest's fine print looking out for his welfare. In it, the terms and conditions for the contest stated that the estimated value of all the available prizes was $5,000, and it was this exact amount that Nintendo offered him as a literal consolation prize, should he not wish to cross his fingers and hope that "The Mask II" actually happens. As Runk recalled: "They gave me the option to wait indefinitely or take the cash ... I took the cash. Absolutely the right call!" In addition to getting a jacket (allegedly), video games, and a couple grand, Runk also got an apology printed in the pages of Nintendo Power's last-ever issue. Although the apology didn't mention him by name, it was still a rare gesture of a company admitting its failure.

The irony surrounding the whole story is that, 10 years after the contest, a sequel to "The Mask" was actually made and released. This film, "Son of the Mask," did not star Jim Carrey; however, it replaced him with Jamie Kennedy. The movie is one of the most reviled sequels ever made, featuring a measly 6% on Rotten Tomatoes and next-to-no defenders, a rarity in this age of reappraisals of unloved films. As Runk observed in his interview, it's possible that he could have rejected the cash prize in favor of holding out for a role in this sequel, but he's not sorry that he took the dough.

However, if a "Mask" follow-up starring Carrey and Diaz actually does end up happening, as the stars have hinted at recently, then perhaps Runk might change his mind. After all, getting to be in a decades-later sequel would be one thing; if it happens and he exercised that prize option, it would've meant he could've been in the running for a world record of the longest anyone had to wait to claim a prize from a contest. Still, cash was probably a better bet. After all, as The Mask himself said, you can't make the scene if you don't have the green.