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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: Andy Rooney Rails Against Cinema Commercials
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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God
Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002
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posted 02-29-2004 07:29 PM
Windows Media Video archived here.
Article / Commentary:
quote:
(CBS) A weekly commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney.
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There are several things we do in this country better than anyone else. One of them is make movies.
They produce a lot of junk in Hollywood, but they also turn out a few movies every year that are good entertainment and real art. They call it cinema when it's art.
I don't know why it is, but whenever one person does something well, someone else always comes along and tries to get in on a good thing with a bad, moneymaking idea.
I don't go to a lot of movies, but the last few times I've been, the picture didn't actually start for 15 minutes after they said it was going to. The first thing you have to sit through is the advertising for what they call "coming attractions" -- their next five movies. Wouldn't an ad for just one be enough?
The editors who make these trailers seem to think violence will get people to come to a movie. They have tumbling car crashes, great balls of fire, walls of sand and sword fights. There is never any intelligent dialogue in any of them.
Now, movie theaters have started doing something even worse to delay the start of the picture you just paid $9.00 to see: they show actual commercials. Don't they understand that's what we go to a movie to get away from - commercials?
At least on television, you get to watch network shows free in exchange for being advertised at. None of us like it, but it's a deal we accept. You get 60 Minutes for nothing, but you have to watch 15 minutes of advertising.
Why should we have to watch advertising before a movie we paid to get in to see? Just tell us what time the show starts. That's when we'll come.
Ray and Joe Syufy, two brothers in San Rafael, Calif., run the seventh largest movie chain in the country. They don't use commercials in any of their theaters.
I called Ray Syufy and asked him why he’s one of the few theater owners who doesn’t run commercials before the feature film starts.
“Our viewers. That’s a false economy. People will stop going to the show potentially as often as they do today if it’s not a different enough experience,” says Syufy. “So we are committed to no TV commercials in our theaters. It doesn’t make much sense for them to be sitting in our theaters and being sold toothpaste.”
There ought to be a law that a movie theater has to say exactly what time the show starts. If we want advertising, we'll stay home and watch it for free on television.
Written By Andy Rooney © MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene
Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 03-01-2004 09:33 AM
The reason that the Syufy's can get away with the loss of commercial revenue is that they actually own the great majority of thier buildings and land, and therefore have no landlords.
They also have more staff on hand with the resultant money as well.
Thier philosphy has always been to build when the money was available, not when they wanted a new theater and the bank was willing to loan you the cash in exchange for your first born son.
With the way the splits go now, the way they have been running things have definately helped them stay on top of the market.
As for anyone else running commercials, well, I am sorry Mr. Rooney, but I don't know ANYONE that goes to the theater to avoid commercials. Last I checked, they go to watch movies. He also failed to point out that the movie was not interrupted for commercials, just delayed for a few minutes.
So why is HIS time so valuable. Why is anyone's. I mean the vast majority of movie goers are NOT neurosurgeons or congressmen, so whats a few minutes? I patiently wait and even comment with my partner about them as they run, as do most people. It even gets most peoples talking fits out of the way before the movie begins.
I used to go into the theaters on sold out shows and have people stand up and get thier wiggles out before the movie. NO KIDDING. People loved it. They were like kindergarten children that needed to be worked out before nap time.
Ciao
Dave
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-01-2004 01:22 PM
I'd like to see someone try Steve's experiment. The only time I've ever heard a number associated with advertising revenue, it was something liek "$50,000 per year" for a 10-plex. I don't know if this included film ads or just slides. Anyway, assuming that this number is in the ballpark, that works out to something like $13-14 per screen per day. Divide by three shows per day and we find that it brings in fewer than $5 per show. Assuming that the average number of customers per show is a (conservative) twenty, we see that ticket prices per show should be $.25 less for the theatre with ads versus the theatre without ads. I would pay the extra quarter for an ad-free film experience and I bet that many (most?) others would as well. If advertising brought in enough revenue to cut ticket prices in half, I might feel differently, but for a lousy $.25/ticket (or less, most likely), ads just make a presentation look tacky.
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