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Author Topic: "Commercials Ought Not To Be In Pictures." Gerard S. Cohen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 975 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 08-05-2003 05:35 PM                     Clyde Haberman took a swing at Loew's showing of commercials before "Seabiscuit" in his popular New York Times column of August 5, 2003, complaining that "...moviegoers...endure an ever-increasing bombardment of commercials before the film." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/05/nyregion/05NYC.html ................................................................ "THE posted starting time the other day for "Seabiscuit" at the Loews Lincoln Square Theater, near Lincoln Center, was 11 a.m. The film did not actually roll until 11:20. First came a parade of commercials at ear-deadening volume for blue jeans, a soft drink, a car, a cellphone and one or two other things that now elude memory. Then came the trailers. By showtime, irritation had set in. Like Marian, Jason Thompson talks about principle. Mr. Thompson is a graphic designer in Portland, Ore. But he speaks to many New Yorkers as director of Captive Motion Picture Audience of America, a group that he formed last year. How is it just, he asks, that people are forced to sit through all those commercials after paying as much as $10 to get in? Commercials on television are one thing, he says. But movie theaters have worked for decades on "a different business model." A senior executive at Loews Cineplex, which runs the Lincoln Square theater, said it was "policy to not comment on this topic in the press." A spokeswoman for another major chain, Regal Entertainment Group, cited an Arbitron survey in which most people, particularly younger ones, said that commercials were fine with them. Mr. Thompson doesn't buy it. "It runs against logic that people don't mind advertising," he said, "when they are going to movie theaters to escape television." For some New Yorkers, the commercials feed a sense of being played for suckers — not unlike the feeling many Broadway theatergoers have when forced to pay a small "restoration charge" on top of the $90 for the ticket...."  |  IP: Logged Mike Williams Master Film Handler Posts: 255 From: Knoxville, TN Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-05-2003 09:05 PM                     With Regal's 2wenty pre-show, the first preview hits the screen at the advertised start time... not the commercials.  |  IP: Logged Daniel Burns Film Handler Posts: 52 From: dallas, TX, USA Registered: Jan 2003 posted 08-05-2003 10:57 PM                     From my understanding these commercials you speak of are actually "pre-shows", and should start earlier so that the feature film can be viewed at scheduled show times. Why people can't start these shows right I don't know. I guess if you get to a movie on time you'll miss all the ads.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 08-05-2003 11:48 PM                        quote: From my understanding these commercials you speak of are actually "pre-shows", and should start earlier so that the feature film can be viewed at scheduled show times. The commercials that are being spoken of are little different (if at all) from the spots that those sponsors are currently running on TV. The theatre is compensated for running those commercials... as they are compensated (by you) for playing the movie. As for your understanding of when a feature should start: It has been standard practice as long as I can remember (45+years) to add trailers to a show, giving theatres an opportunity to generate interest in upcoming releases. In recent years, the studios have added trailers to the front of the print themselves, leading to a question whether those trailers constitute a part of the feature and making the theatre contractually obligated to play them (like most of them care). In any case, the trailers are customarily part of the show, and the advertised start time (at least in the US) has always been for the beginning of that "show". Unfortunately, some chains, if not the sponsors as well, would have you believe that the additional paid product advertising should now be considered part of that "show" that they hope you'll show up early enough... and pay to watch. Strictly on principal, the whole concept sucks. At least Regal has lowered the suck factor somewhat by placing their commercials before the advertised start time. Oh... and with all due respect to Arbitron... I've been in and around radio long enough to know you can take a survey and make it say just about anything you want. If you listen long enough, you'll find out that just about every station in Seattle is "NUMBER ONE!" .......... at something.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 08-06-2003 11:16 AM                        The forms I fill out for Regal when I do advertising checks suggest that, as someone else pointed out, The 2wenty pre-show stuff is supposed to end, and the trailers begin, at the advertised showtime. This seems reasonable to me. However on the last couple checks I did, they've been starting the pre-show stuff at the advertised showtime, not before (the Regal theatre here is not on The 2wenty though, just normal rolling stock).  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 08-07-2003 05:31 PM                     My understanding is that the Rolling Stock HAS to start at the advertise start of the movie. The advertisers do not want to pay to have their commercials shown on a near empty screen. Basically as long as the theater companies are promising the advertisers a "capative audience" in order to get those advertising dollars, this will continue to be the case.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-07-2003 05:52 PM                        /RANT ON/ We just had a checker report in which the checker stated "The movie started 15 minutes late'. What he actually was saying was that the ACTUAL film started 15 minutes after the ads AND trailers. With the media bombarding these articles across the United States more and more people are complaining about the ads before the film. I have been doing this for a long time and we have ALWAYS run ads before the show. I will admit that some theatre companies have gotten out of hand with the amount of ads the are putting on. However: You ever notice that people only complain when they read about it in the paper and then say "oh yeah - I am going to complain about that too". Everyone immediately forgets that we have been doing the same thing for years and only till there is an article about it in the paper - do they wake up and realize it is soemthing they don't like. Remember the big popcorn oil scare about ten years ago? "Eating a bag of popcorn at your local theatre is the same as having two steak dinners". Then everyone freaked out and we had to do things like use nasty peanut oil to cook the popcorn in. Well, most patrons prefer coconut oil - the same oil that will 'give you a heart attack in a minute'. Although now - studies find it may not be that bad. Boy, I hate the media. /RANT OFF/  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 08-07-2003 11:42 PM                        When advertisements (as opposed to trailers ) first started appearing some years ago, NYC movie audiences frequently booed (not that there was anyone from management listening.) But more recently, I never hear any negative reaction. I think people now expect to be bombarded by advertising everywhere and accept it, but in a movie theater situation, ignore it as much as they can and continue talking through the ads. Most ads that I've seen were either shot on video or on 16mm and generally look and sound like crap in a theater. I was in the AMC Empire yesterday and aside from the video projector ads, there was no screen advertising aside from the trailers. Theatres that I attend in NYC play the slide show or video ads preshow and start the trailers within a few minutes of the advertised showtime.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-08-2003 12:41 PM                        People pay for satellite and cable TV, but you don't hear a big wail over advertising there. They pay huge money for concerts and sports games which feature advertising "in your face" throughout the event! When we start interrupting movies in the middle for a commercial break, THEN maybe there will be something to complain about. (Although a "bathroom break" would be nice on some of these longer movies!)  |  IP: Logged Steve Anderson Expert Film Handler Posts: 168 From: Nashville, TN Registered: Feb 2000 posted 08-09-2003 07:44 AM                        At our theater we put only one trailer on the feature. Most films now have at least one attached trailer. Our customers know that they can come in for a 7PM show and see the opening title around 7:05. We don't make them sit through 20 mins of trailers. New customers always thank us for that!  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 08-09-2003 04:50 PM                     "People pay for satellite and cable TV, but you don't hear a big wail over advertising there." I did- I remember the first time I got to watch MTV and was shocked to see them go to a commercial break. I've never understood why people pay for cable when they show just as many commercials, if not more than regular TV, and is the main reason why I've never subscribed to cable. (I've always thought the mini-satellite dishes were ridiculous too, as you have to pay to 'unlock' the channels that are advertiser-supported- those should be available free to anyone who has a receiver set up, and charged only for movie channels and pay-per-view.)  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 08-09-2003 05:57 PM                        Cable TV companies do not *originate* any advertiser-paid programming, and thus do not receive any of the advertising revenue. They do however put up satellite dishes, receivers, control centers, and lay hundreds of miles of cable. Shouldn't they get paid for that, even if "that" is bringing you 102 channels of nothing? Same principle applies to satellite companies -- they don't originate any programming, but they have enormous costs bringing programming to viewers.  |  IP: Logged Mike Williams Master Film Handler Posts: 255 From: Knoxville, TN Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-09-2003 06:34 PM                     quote: Cable TV companies do not *originate* any advertiser-paid programming, and thus do not receive any of the advertising revenue. In fact, cable companies do sell ad space on their cable channels. For example, Comcast here in Knoxville sells local advertising on channels like MTV. Adelphia and TCI did the same thing down in Miami when I lived down there. They mske money from the ads and the subscriptions.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 08-09-2003 10:51 PM                        I stand corrected.  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-11-2003 12:54 AM                        Local ad insertion sales & tech is what staffs your local cable company!  |  IP: Logged

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