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Author Topic: Pre-movie ads rip off theatregoers. Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-19-2003 02:28 PM                     Two lawsuits were filed on Tuesday againist movie theatres. The suits claim in their ads they'll show movies at a certain time, but instead, show on-screen commercials at the advertised time, delaying the movie's start. www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-film19.html Pre-movie ads rip off theatergoers, suits claim February 19, 2003 BY DAVE NEWBART STAFF REPORTER Advertisement How much is three to four minutes of your time worth--especially when you're waiting for the latest "Lord of the Rings" movie to start? That question was posed in two lawsuits filed Tuesday against movie theaters that claim in their ads they'll show movies at a certain time, but, instead, show on- screen commercials at the advertised time, delaying the movie's start. Theaters are committing consumer fraud when they claim in advertising that a movie starts at a certain time but it really starts a few minutes later because of the ads, said Mark Weinberg, a Chicago attorney who filed the two suits. "They deceive you into thinking a movie starts on time in order to create a captive audience,'' Weinberg said. "People are actually paying good money to watch commercials.'' The lawsuits were filed in Cook County Circuit Court. One is against the Downers Grove company Classic Cinemas and the other against New York- based Loews Cineplex Entertainment, which also operates theaters here. The suits argue that the practice of showing the ads constitutes fraud, false advertising and breach of contract. One of the suits was filed by Miriam Fisch, 36, of Evanston, who teaches English and film in Lincolnshire and is Weinberg's former girlfriend. On Feb. 8, she went to see "The Quiet American'' at Loews' Pipers Alley theater in Chicago. She said she sat through commercials for Coca-Cola, Cingular Wireless, Fandango and one for the NAACP, which delayed the beginning of the movie by four minutes past its advertised starting time. Greg Scott, 35, a DePaul University sociology professor from Oak Park, sued Classic Cinemas after he went to see "The Pianist'' Jan. 26 at the Lake Theater in the west suburb. He said he had to sit through three commercials before the movie started. Both suits ask for damages of no more than $75 per person. More important, the attorneys who filed them say, is that their clients want the commercials dropped--or they want ads to state the time a movie actually begins, not just when the commercials begin to roll. "We just want the practice to stop, or we want the company to give notice,'' Weinberg said. The suits don't take issue with movie previews. That's because moviegoers have come to expect those trailers "as a time-honored part of the moviegoing experience,'' Weinberg said. Chris Johnson, vice president of Tivoli Enterprises, which operates Classic Cinemas, said the "concept [behind the suit] is ridiculous.'' He said his company had been showing no more than three minutes of commercials at some of its 12 theaters for about four years. But the advertised start time for a movie is for the entire presentation, not for the movie itself, he said. An official with Loews declined to comment.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-19-2003 02:52 PM                        As much as I hate pre-movie ads (not including trailers), this lawsuit is ridiculous. Having said that, at "Daredevil" this past weekend, Regal showed more pure ads than I ever recall seeing before in a US theatre.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-19-2003 02:55 PM                        Very in-ter-est-ing.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-19-2003 02:56 PM                     While this lawsuit is ridiculous, I certainly hope they win. Perhaps it would make the greedy corporate people understand that customers do not like commercials. As a customer, I would very much prefer to pay an extra quarter for a movie ticket than watch that shit. Commercials are turning the moviegoing experience into a big tv.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-19-2003 03:01 PM                        quote: Commercials are turning the moviegoing experience into a big tv. Not only that, but they're also advertising TV shows in some cases. What the hell is up with that? Like you said, I bet they'd be money ahead if they dumped the ads and raised ticket prices 25 cents. Not to mention that many, maybe most, of the ads have lousy image quality and are a disgrace to whoever is paying for the screen time. If you're going to buy ad time on a 50 foot screen, at least kick up the production values so you and your product don't look so crappy.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-19-2003 03:09 PM                        As far as I know, the Signature theatres here in Hawaii does not show any commercials but Consolidtaed (Pacific) does. They used to annoy me when they ran them during "my time" during the advertised show schedule but they have been running them about five minutes earlier now which is great. Many People have made it a habit to be deliberately late when they go to the movies because they are not interested in watching movie trailers they most likely have seen before. Running these advertisments during the published show time in addition to trailers will encourage these rude people to arrive much later after the start of the feature and make movie tardiness worse. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 02-19-2003 03:48 PM                       General Cinema would not have had to worry about this lawsuit. They always made a big deal about starting early, by the running time of all the pre-show stuff, so the advertised start times were accurate. How I miss those guys.  |  IP: Logged Christian Appelt Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 505 From: Frankfurt, Germany Registered: Dec 2001 posted 02-19-2003 03:56 PM                     Cinema without commercials sounds like heaven to me. Here we get 15 to 30 minutes of commercials and trailers, most commercials blown up from video in a truly horrible image quality. This visual junk drives many people to the back rows - which weakens the impact that the following movie should have. But now a question to the UK forum members: Is it still customary in the UK to print the start time for the commercial/trailer program and for the film itself separately in newspapers? I saw that 20 years ago when I visited London. Seemed like a good idea to me because some people actually seem to enjoy commericial films, but in Germany, no theatre will print the actual start time of the feature.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-19-2003 03:58 PM                        Tim--we still do this at AMC. Not sure if it's a company policy thing or just a holdover in the ex-GCC houses. As it was explained to me by one of the NCN people, some theatres use slide ads provided by one company and film ads provided by a different company. As such, the slide company will prohibit them from starting the film ads early in order to get as much exposure as possible for the slides. Since GCC (and now AMC) currently uses NCN for both slide ads and film ads, the early starts are a nonissue. I agree that this lawsuit is stupid, but anything that reduces the amount of advertising that audiences are subjected to after paying $9 for a movie ticket is a very good thing. Personally, I don't like slide ads, but I can live with them if they are done tastefully. Film ads--particularly prints made from video sources--are just plain tacky. Is Landmark (the only other chain I've worked for) the only major chain that doesn't show slides OR film ads?  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-19-2003 04:50 PM                     Slide projectors I can deal with. Rolling stock, I can not. Now, I feel funny about saying "Cell Phone Laws are bad", THEN saying that I think these people filing the suit are right. Note they are suing only for nominal damages and injunctive relief. It's a good tactic. This proves that they are not just looking for a "deep pocket". Furthermore, it forces the theater companies to spend MORE money defending a suit than they could possibly lose in a judgement against them. In short, they lose if they lose the judgement and they STILL lose even if they win. The defendant's only logical way out is to settle the suit and ammend their practices. I have to agree with Brad. I think it's ridiculous but some times you have to "fight fire with fire": A ridiculous situation might just as well require a ridiculous solution. The best answer, in my opinion would be to move the projector start time up to accomodate the total time of rolling stock ads. Now, if the advertising companies complain all they have to do is hold up the piece of paper with the judgement against them and say, "No, we can't! YOU deal with it!"  |  IP: Logged Doug Willming Film Handler Posts: 45 From: San Antonio, TX, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 02-19-2003 05:10 PM                        Film Journal has a big puffy article about Regal Cinemedia and how they are going to change the U.S. movie-going culture with their 20-minute "pre-show". I still think it's going to potentially piss off a lot of people and I don't understand advertising for television shows in a movie theatre! I kind of liken it to watching a cute show last night "Life with Bonnie" and being subjected to a ton of reality TV crap show commercials during that 30 minutes. I read in this article that they might show R-rated reality junk before R-rated movies. Well, if I'm out to see something like "About Schmidt", I don't want to be subjected to material that's in poor taste just because I choose to attend an R-rated film.  |  IP: Logged Nicholas Roznovsky Expert Film Handler Posts: 156 From: College Station, TX, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 02-19-2003 05:35 PM                        Fortunately, my company has so far resisted the temptation to have rolling stock ads before the film. We do have slides, but I can live with those if they keep tacky trailers off of my screens.  |  IP: Logged Ian Price Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1714 From: Denver, CO Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-19-2003 06:31 PM                     We don't run ads. But we have 3 to 4 trailers before each film. When people are late, up to twenty minutes late, they always say, "but the trailers are still on right?" I always tell them that no, there are only 6 minutes of trailers and they are still late. I always thought that a good use of a video projecector would be to run a pre-show on the screen. So let's say we ran a PSA, trailer, ad, trailer, informational piece, trailer, video art, trailer, music video, trailer, ad, trailer. Then at the moment of our advertised start time, the lights went down and the feature started. I'll bet 5% to 15% of our audience would miss the beggining of the show!  |  IP: Logged Dino Panagiotopoulos Expert Film Handler Posts: 139 From: Windor, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jan 2003 posted 02-19-2003 07:01 PM                     Heres something interesting I found on the same site. This one comes from Roger Ebert in his Movie Answer man column http://www.suntimes.com/output/answ-man/sho-sunday-ebert09.html 20 minutes of ads? Walk out February 9, 2003 BY ROGER EBERT I got a good laugh out of that AM question about ads in theaters. I happen to work for Regal as a manager. Regal is evil and greedy, but maybe not in that order. Each week we receive a list of commercials that must be onscreen. And every week, each movie has a minimum of eight to 10 commercials. The corporate office is very focused on how much revenue advertisements provide. Everything else is secondary to making sure all commercials are running--including customer complaints. Now, in coordination with RegalCinemedia, Regal Entertainment will begin implementing a pre-feature program: Twenty minutes of commercials preceding the start time of the feature--projected digitally. I wonder how well this will work. Considering that shows will have to end at least 20 minutes before the pre-feature program, this will largely limit the number of shows per day. Name withheld A. If I were faced with 20 minutes of paid advertising before a movie, I would simply walk out and demand my money back. Commercials are fine when they underwrite TV or subsidize newspapers, which could not exist without them. But when I pay for a ticket, I am personally subsidizing the screening, and resent being made into a captive victim. I received an avalanche of mail on this subject, and cannot understand why advertisers would want to attract hostility toward their products by deliberately offending potential customers.  |  IP: Logged Dino Panagiotopoulos Expert Film Handler Posts: 139 From: Windor, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jan 2003 posted 02-19-2003 07:09 PM                     Yet another stab at Regal cinemas from the same column......... http://www.suntimes.com/output/answ-man/sho-sunday-ebert12.html Filmgoer hits ad nauseam January 12, 2003 BY ROGER EBERT FILM CRITIC When we went to see "The Two Towers" at our local theater (owned by Regal) we were forced to sit through 30 minutes of commercials and advertisements. This was prior to the usual amount of trailers. The audience that night was close to rioting after the first 15 minutes of ads, and I understood their frustration. The trailers I don't mind but if I wanted to see commercials I would stay home and watch TV. Any thoughts on how we can stop this before it gets any worse? Joanna Land, Irvine, Calif. A. I agree with you: I've paid to get in and don't deserve to have commercials inflicted on me. There is another insidious possibility: Movies are currently held to about two hours because theaters want to "turn over" the audience three times a night. If 20 or 30 minutes of commercials are added, will directors be pressured to hold their movies to 90 minutes? There are trade reports that theater ad packages are being promoted as a new advertising medium. What may sink this trend is the intense resentment audiences feel against the commercials. If I were a sponsor, I would think twice before buying ads so that an audience could boo my trademark.  |  IP: Logged

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