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Theater Chains Sued for Running Too Many Commercials (1 Viewer)

Lew Crippen

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The only thing about "getting to the theater 10 minutes later" is that good seats can be hard to find (for in-demand films with good audience turnout), or some theaters won't sell you a ticket if you show up x minutes after that particular showtime.
For a popular movie during its initial run, it really makes no difference if commercials are shown or not. If for example, a showing is scheduled at 7:00 p.m., and beings at that time, anyone who comes in at 6:55 or so, will likely not get a good seat. Which means that you must come in at 6:45 or so, to get the good seats. Now it may be great that there are no commercials, but the alternative is to sit in the theatre with inane quizzes on the screen for 15 minutes or so.

Anyway you slice it, the time is more or less wasted.

I’m not a fan of commercials, but their existence has nothing to do with how far in advance you need to arrive to get preferred seating for a film.
 

Dustin Woods

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I'm not sure if they've gone to this across the country or just in my town (which is their corp. HQ), but Regal Cinemas has started doing their commercials a little differently. Now they have a thing called What's Your Twenty or something similar, where they start a commercial package twenty minutes before the showtime. They actually have some decently interesting stuff on there, such as a couple months ago they had a behind the scenes feature on George Harrison's last album that lasted about eight minutes. I kind of like this approach because the commercials end and the trailers start right at the showtime listed. So if it's a movie that you know is going to be less crowded, you can get there right at showtime and the trailers will just be starting.
 

RobertR

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I'm not a fan of commercials, but this strikes me as the wrong approach. If you don't like commercials, come late, boycott theaters (wait for the DVD), etc. There needs to be a better basis for a suit than "I hate commercialism". :angry:
 

Patrick Sun

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Obviously people who are showing up 10 minutes after the listed showtime begins are not worried about getting a primo seat. :D
 

EricW

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I'm not a fan of commercials, but this strikes me as the wrong approach. If you don't like commercials, come late, boycott theaters
i agree. let the market decide: if showing commercials was such a big deal, let a competing theater chain advertise "no commercials" and see if they can draw the masses. if it doesn't change their revenue, obviously the commercials don't bother people as much as they complain about it.

i would hope there's a happy medium. if a movie is supposed to start at 9pm, why not start showing commercials at 8:40 but with the lights on or something.
 

Morgan Jolley

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The only problem I have with commercials is that some of them aren't even related to movies (Moviephone, some of the Pepsi stuff from a few years ago, and things like that are different) and they still take up a lot of time. If they started commercials early, I'd be fine with that. So long as the trailers start at showtime.
 

Mark Palermo

Second Unit
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Yeah, if they start the commercials before the advertised showtimes, play them with the lights on, and the sound off (so I can talk to people), I have no problem with them. Otherwise, I'm all for this lawsuit.
 

Kim D

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Dec 18, 2002
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The only thing about "getting to the theater 10 minutes later" is that good seats can be hard to find (for in-demand films with good audience turnout), or some theaters won't sell you a ticket if you show up x minutes after that particular showtime.
Logic seems to dictate that the in-demand films show commercials. Lower profits for newly release movies means showing commercials to make up the difference.

- kim
 

Ted Lee

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it's a crappy situation. you have to get there early to have a good seat, but then you're forced to watch commercials.

that's the key word there. forced. you're a captive audience so you're stuck. it's really the same reason some people will pay 10 bucks for a coke and popcorn. and the theaters know this.

ebert is talking about this issue too.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/answ-...y-ebert09.html
 

Jesse Skeen

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Sacramento people might be interested to know that I used to be the Booth Manager at Regal Natomas. Know why I left? Because most of the screens there have top-masking, and they decided to have the masking change in between shows to accomodate the slides, essentially making the screen get smaller when the show started if you were playing a scope movie. This was in addition to film ads, and audio ads playing on the intermission music CD. I felt having the masking change for the slides was just going too far, so I left for that reason. They put more importance on the ads than on the actual movie.
 

Dome Vongvises

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The only time they ought to show commercials is before the reel even starts. What's wrong with that? Show all your advertisements beforehand. I sure know that I have a lot of dead time between when the previews start and when I get in my seat.

I'm pretty sure it's much cheaper than hiring an entire crew to produce a commericial and then show it. One still frame. That's all that's needed.
 

Jesse Skeen

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Some theaters had curtains that opened at the start of the show and closed at the end, adding a little class to the presentation. When slide ads came in they just left the curtains open and turned out some of the lights so they'd be visible onscreen too. Big reason why I dislike any sort of advertising in theaters. If they're going to do it they should give the customers a reason to put up with it. (As my pay came from these I never raised a stink about that, though I felt it was insulting to the customers. Sucks to be in that business and have a conscience!)
 

Christopher P

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Dec 28, 1998
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I never watch the show but this lady was Connie Chung's "Person of the Day" today. Maybe some national press will get other people upset about the issue. I go to the theater so rarely (as evidenced by my poor performace in the "Name That Movie" contests) that I don't have an opinion, other than it being a small annoyance.

Chris
 

Max Leung

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Another problem with showing up during the commercials is the darkness of the theater...how do you find a seat when you can hardly see anything, except from the dim light of the commerical that is playing? And we know that many theaters purposely dim the bulb to cut down on bulb replacement costs...
 

MarcVH

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Dec 26, 2001
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Eventually they'll hit an upper limit on how long the ads can get. Right now, ads and trailers and other promos can take about a half hour (after the advertised start time and before the movie begins.) They'll probably stretch that up to 45 minutes, but I don't think it could go a whole hour.

Then what can they do for additional revenue? Charge you $2 to use the restroom? Add a $3 convenience charge to all tickets, even if you buy them in person at the box office? Tack a 20% gratuity onto popcorn? Or just get over all the subterfuge and train the ushers to pick your pockets during the movie?
 

Adam Lenhardt

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Well atleast for the bathroom issue, it's illegal in many states to charge for the use of public restrooms.;)

I only hope that consumer aggrivation with ads doesn't take the whole damn industry down with it. That's why I feel that testing what the market will bear is a scary proposition.
 

Travis Hedger

Supporting Actor
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Mar 24, 1998
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I would be perfectly happy with commercials before my movie in the theater...if the movie was free and the concessions were MUCH cheaper.

Otherwise, if I have to pay $8 per ticket and take out a loan to get the goodies, then I want absolutely NO commercials what-so-ever.

The slides before the trailers show are OK by me however.
 

John Watson

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Jul 14, 2002
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Re the commercials - It might be a good time to make cell-phone calls, or talk loudly, about why we have to pay to watch this fugging crap?

Seriously, commercial creep is an inadequate term for the avalanche of business propaganda that we are drowning in.

I would wish this lawsuit well.:)
 

Brian Kidd

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I have no problem with commercials as long as they last no more than ten minutes and are shown before the posted start time of the film with the lights on and the volume at a reasonable level so that they can be ignored if I so desire. I am paying to see the movie. If an advertiser wants me to be a captive audience, then they can pay me.

When I went to see LOTR, there were 30 minutes of ads and previews before the feature began. That is waaayyy too much.
 

Michael*K

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When I went to see LOTR, there were 30 minutes of ads and previews before the feature began. That is waaayyy too much.
I believe it. When I told people that I sat through 25 minutes of commercials and previews before Harry Potter, nobody believed me except the people I went with.
 

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