01/20/2005: 
Stuff That Doesn't Suck
Lawmaker wants theaters honest about movie start times
from Houston Chronicle
Coming soon to a theater near you: movie listings that print the start time for the main feature.
Frustrated with lengthy advertisements and previews that delay movies and chew up viewing time, a state lawmaker wants theaters to be honest about when a movie actually starts.
State Rep. Andrew Fleischmann (D-CT) is proposing legislation to force movie listings to print the time the previews start, and when the movies start.
2 Annotations Submitted
Friday the 21st of January, movietheatreinsder26 noted:
As someone who has to deal with this very subject on a daily basis, let me try to paint the picture.
At the theatre I currently work at- and this holds true for any theatre run by a chain- a trailer list is sent to the theatre. This list is then given to the projectionist, who puts the trailers on the feature.
The list can vary in size. For instance, this week, I am running only four commercials and three previews, totalling about 10 minutes, which is an acceptable amount of time. At another theatre chain that I worked at (a large multiplex), there were over 20 minutes of previews, with 5- 7 minutes of commercials. A third theatre I worked at, an independently owned multiplex, only showed trailers.
If you are a corporate theatre and you do not put on the trailers in the order that they want them, you will get in trouble. The chain, as well as reps from the film companies, send people out all the time to look at these trailers to make sure they are on there. Coroporations pay big bucks for these ads, as the audience is totally captive and cannot change the channel.
While it does look like a big corporate clusterefuck, previews DO serve a purpose- at least 1/4th of the audience to a given show comes after the previews have started. These customers need to get their popcorn and soda too, and if the movie has begun by the time they get in, they become quite upset, because they arrived late at the theatre because they wanted to avoid the previews. If we advertised the ACTUAL starting time, everyone would show up late.
Perhaps Rep. Fleischmann should try submitting other bills with less grandiose goals, like say controlling the weather or making the trains run on time.
Wednesday the 26th of January, awiggins noted:
My issue is not so much with the previews, as they do serve the purpose that you put forward and are often better then the movie that they precede, but with the addition of ads. They make more then enough money off of consumers as it is, without shoving ads down our throats. First there were gratuitous product placements in films, now they add commercials that you have to watch before the film. It is not just in the theatre either. That whole thing with the TV and Movie companies trying to make it so you can not use the fast forward button on your VCR/DVD/TiVo. It will not be long before I am getting ads for LightSpeed™ Briefs beamed directly into my dreams.
