Interesting article about Movie Ads (1 Viewer)

From the MOVIES section description:

If you include links in your posts, please explain their relevance.

Plus, a less obscure thread title wouldn't hurt either.

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As Tino stated which is why the thread's title has been changed.





Crawdaddy

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I go to Regal theaters all the time; they're pretty much the only multiplex around me (there are two nearby). While The 2wenty is sometimes loud, i'm much happier now that I know the trailers will start at the time printed on my ticket, not a barage of commercials. I've adjusted my movie attendance habbits so that I take my seat closer to the time printed on the ticket.

Whenever I hear about a twenty-minute ad package before a movie, I have to wonder how much time the ushers have to tidy the theaters up. Back when I was doing that in college, there would sometimes only be fifteen minutes between the end of one show and the beginning of another.

Hey, someone from Sacramento! I was the booth manager at Regal Natomas and I left because they made me start showing their stupid slides on the 'flat' screens, then have the masking come down for scope when the show started, essentially giving you a smaller screen than the actual movie! If they're going to make their screens like that, the masking should not move just to accomodate the slides. The people in charge there truly have a lot of contempt for the audience, which I could just not be associated with. Hope this thing keeps out whatever's left of that theater's customers!

Jesse,

You'll be THRILLED to hear that our local Silvercity in Victoria, which is all common-width, now do digital slides on the 1.85 screens, and will also reduce at top and bottom to 2.40 as the movie begins (if applicable, of course ).

While the volume of the digislides aren't as irritating as the ones that Jason Borchers described, they are still frustrating to watch -- nothing beats hearing an entire audience quiet down at the arrival of a crappy Snapple commercial that isn't funny. :frowning:

Jason

That's disgusting- they shouldn't make their screens common-width to begin with, but for god's sakes if they are, don't let people KNOW about it!! The theatre I left said that they wanted "the biggest possible screen" for their advertisers, and my reply was "If it's big enough to show the movie, it's big enough to show the slides." I usually sit a couple rows closer in theatres that have this type of screen, so it pisses me off if I go in expecting it to be flat and then having the masking come down when the show starts!
BTW I don't know what's with all the common-width screens out there right now- one company here just closed their older theatre and opened a brand-new one on the same property, and ALL 16 screens there are common-width! At least they don't have the masking change for the slides, and they've said they'll never run commercials. The 2 bigger screens where I worked at least had side-masking! If I wanted to watch letterboxed movies I would have stayed at home!

All of the United Artist (Regal owned) threatres near me have been playing the 2wenty for a decent amount of time now. Enough that I've seen around 5 different versions of it. It doesn't bother me since they already were doing animated slides and/or commercials before anyway. I'm just glad that this did away with ALL commercials after the start time printed on the ticket. I know that when the 2wenty is over, the trailers begin. They also haven't been loud at all. Of course I've been complaining about quiet movies as well so that doesn't surprise me.

My biggest complaint about the 2wenty is that it constantly is advertising ITSELF!! Next time I'm actually going to count how many times they have a commercial or narrative saying "Come and watch the 2wenty" and then showing the list of what they showed and what is coming up. It has only been like 5 minutes. I know what I just saw. Then those 'ads' always end with "The 2wenty...You're There". No shit Sherlock.

So yeah that is my only complaint about them.

Can we start a list of cinemas we know for sure do not use advertisements or a low amount of advertisements?

The only ads here are the good old movie slides......err.....sorry, PRE SHOW ENTERTAINMENT...

The Landmark chain (or at least, their Cambridge location) generally only has one non-trailer ad before the film, and that's either for a contest they're running in conjunction with a film or for Bravo/IFC. And those Independant Film Channel ones are often very funny/self-deprecating.

The local indie houses also don't have many/any ads - nothing at Coolidge Corner or Allston Cinema Underground, only slides for local businesses at the Brattle.

The 2wenty did not bother me recently. Much better than the fifteen I would spend watching ads at the beginning of the start time at other theaters. No ads would be better, but the studios are being Scrooge McSuck, so theaters need to stay afloat. Wish the industry would help them.

Take care,
Chuck