Aaron Silverman

Absolutely 100% correct with that comment. That "legislator" should be ashamed of himself. We're living in an era where *everything* is the government's business, and I don't like it one bit. Good luck ever getting the government to take its nose (or its paws) out of something once it gets in. A law like this one would probably end up as a simple revenue generator for the state via fines.

This sort of crap is why Fox had to start blurring cartoon tushies on reruns of Family Guy. We'll never get our animated butts back!

"How wonderful it will be to have a leader unburdened by the twin horrors of knowledge and experience." -- Mr. Wick

Bill Williams

Fleischmann needs to get a clue. The whole thing of extra stuff before the start of the feature film goes way back to the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, when movie theaters used to show cartoons, newsreels, chapters of the latest movie serials, singalongs, and preview trailers before the main feature itself. Back then nobody minded. Nowadays we gripe when we see TV commercials running for 10 minutes before the preview trailers kick in.

The only movie I've ever been to where it started exactly on time, without any preview trailers or ads or anything prefacing it, was "The Passion of the Christ". So it is possible to start a movie exactly on its listed time.

\"I have in my heart what it takes to run with the big dogs in this life, and nobody can say otherwise.\"

\"Attention all personnel. Tonight\'s movie is a holdover from last week and will be shown right after supper, which is also a holdover from last week.\"

RobertR

Pure political grandstanding in an area the government has no business being in. "Look at me, I look out for you!". What nonsense.

chris winters

Just becuase the theaters are now running the 20 min. does not mean that im not a "big boy" if I dont like it. actually, it is most adults who are upset by this, not the teenagers. The fact is laws often exist to keep corporations in check. None of our industries work outside of any restrictions. Corporations have one goal, to make money, not to give you a valued viewing experience or allow you a nice evening out, to make money. Laws exist to make our day to day life more pleasent and keep our civilisation running smoothly and moraly. Where do you draw the line at when and where the government steps in? Break assembly guidlines on cars? How about manditory seatbelts and airbags? Food quality? airline technology? Corporations left unchecked have no obligation to "do the right thing." Laws force that behavior. Also all of your examples, Zack, are television shows which are available free. The issue here is the idea that after you pay for a ticket and then you have to surrender yourself to 20 more minutes of more ads. 5 years from now it will be 30 minutes and then an hour of ads. How about we lock the theater doors and have everyone watch another 30 minutes of ads after the movie ends? Laws on large issues and small issues are passed every day in government. Bravo to them at least trying curb a frustrating practice by the theater chains.

ON assigned seating, it really takes the pressure off moviegoing here in L.A. where shows constantly sell out, and the logistics of driving/parking and finding a good seat can somtimes get nasty. many of the larger/newer "entertainment complexes" are doing it to great success.

Movies are like books, except you can\'t set your\' drink on them, well.. unless its a DVD...oh nevermind

Steve Kuester

File me under the "none of the government's business" camp. Let the free market decide. If this politician (or the people who got him to propose the legislation) are that upset about it, they should build/aquire their own theater and start their movies whenever they want.
If it is truly a big deal to the movie going public, they'll make loads of money. And, other theaters will see the success they're having and follow suit.
On the other hand, if no one really cares it will be another failed buisness venture. In my opinion, this would show we didn't need the legislation.

Either way, the "problem" is solved with no new legislation/government invlovement.

Glenn Overholt

The cartoons and newsreels of old were entertaining though, the commercials are just annoying! They will get longer in the future, and will only have a limited length when they take away another show time (which brings in more money).

Have I got a deal for you! I want to sell you a movie theater. (run with me on this). You can charge the customers whatever you want (within the market) and charge even more for the junk food. Pay your employees minimum wage and after the bills are all paid off, you get the rest.

Which isn't much, from what I have heard about the profit margins. Who would want to get into a business like that? Would you want to go home every night smelling like buttered popcorn? This whole profit margin thing just doesn't come out right, especially now that the studios don't run the theaters.

Charge $8 and have high consession prices. Charge $9 and the consession prices should/could drop. People might even buy more junk food because it is cheaper! $10? cheaper still?

They have to do all of this AND run ads just to stay in business? I wouldn't take ownership of a theater if you gave one to me for free. (Ok, seeing every movie would be cool, but still).

Glenn

chris winters

It was the free market that allowed VHS to win out over Beta, a much superior product, when the VCR was first hitting in the early 70/80s. A better product does not always guarantee you buisiness success. Especially when large corporation can manipulate said market to further their own specific agenda, i.e. making large amounts of cash.

Movies are like books, except you can\'t set your\' drink on them, well.. unless its a DVD...oh nevermind

Steve Kuester

That's what I'm getting at - If commercials before the movie were that annoying to everyone and you chose not to run them and start your movie on time, your theater would be full for every show. You'd make a mint!

If not, that means not enough people really cared either way and we don't need the legislation.

RobertR

You're making an absolute statement that doesn't fit the facts. Beta did have superior picture quality, but the market decided that the difference wasn't enough to overcome the advantage VHS had in recording time. The market decided that VHS was the superior product overall, whether you agree with it or not.

Sony paid the price for its poor business decisions. I much prefer that business fail for bad decisions and succeed for good ones, rather than having the outcome imposed by state dictate.

Steve Kuester

Chris - I'm not sure I understand. So you would have preferred that a piece of legislation was passed back in the 70s/80s that allowed Beta to win over VHS?

I'm not saying the free market will always guarantee the best product. I just don't think we need the government invloved in telling us when our movies start.

chris winters

The thing is, the theaters sell out wether they run the ads or not. So they make more money running the ads. I supose your' correct in that they havent crossed that threshold where people are pissed enough to stop going, but do your really want to push the miserable theater going exerience that far? until we hit rock bottom? I guess thats the question. Given an alternative, people would take it, im sure, but there is no way an alternative could compete. Maybe a theater that charges more per ticket, enough to offset the profit made by the ads, would generate enough buisiness to stay afloat. Maybe that is the answer, but somehow I predict we will live with the ads getting worse and worse, as well as higher ticket prices, higher concession prices, and noisy cell phones etc...until the industry eventually crashes. I wonder why it took the theater owners so long to figure out the, " ads before movies thing." They could have run commercials decades ago, and made money, but somehow It is tolerated now when it wouldnt have been in the past.

Movies are like books, except you can\'t set your\' drink on them, well.. unless its a DVD...oh nevermind