Commercials before movies...Just Stupid

[Swift]

This is getting ludicrous now.

Went to see Fantastic 4 last friday. 4:30 showing. The lights went down at 4:25, the movie didn't start until 4:45!

What kind of crap is that! Why do I have to PAY to see commercials like that! It's not like TV where I can change the channel(I don't really watch TV anymore, but it's a good comparisson), I'm STUCK watching commercials for American Express and Fanta.

I heard that they were wondering why War of the Worlds didn't do so well. After some polling they found out that people were sick of paying 10$ for 15 minutes of commercials.

Don't get me wrong, a preview or two is cool, but dang...20 minutes. That's just stupid. Honestly, I doubt I'll pay to go to the movies again until they fix this.

What do you all think?

 

[vladimir]

and then they wonder why nobody goes to the movies anymore. 8 or 9 euro and sometimes over 15 minutes of commercials...

the only day when the cinema here is full is on tuesday when every ticket is only 4€.

 

[a6m5]

The commercials do bother me quite a bit. Previews are OK.What bugs me even more is the ticket prices, which I think is worth about $6(they charge over $8 here). I used to go to movies, like everyother week when there was a $3 movie theater, but they closed down recently. Now I go to movies like every 2, 3 months, and only when forced to. I was almost forced to go see the War of the Worlds and the Fantasic Four over the weekend, but I didn't thanks to the gtp members' reviews at Movies & TV forum here.

I also never(almost never) buy food at the sports games and movies. Talk about highway robbery. Please stop buying food from them, people! You're encouraging them.

 

[EvilToast]

i'm tired of watching fanta comercialsl the girls aren't even that hot, then i remember long ago there was a comercial for some tooth paste that made no effing sense, some of you may remember the guy and the girl making out then they go to the shower and start taking their clothes off then a ****ing toothpaste picture shows up and you're sitting there saying WTF? this is sad now.

 

[a6m5]

One I remember the most is the Samsung one. It was one of the first to to be shown in theaters. They always show those awful Fandango one's too.

 

[McLaren]

I don't even go anymore.

$10 for 1 person, $10 for popcorn, $7 for large soda, and now $5 for candy.

Hell, I'll wait 2 months, rent it, and save $26, tax not included.

The prices these days are outrageous!

 

[Solid Lifters]

More commercials means more money.

I wouldn't know. I haven't been to the movies in what, ten years?

 

[a6m5]

I don't even go anymore.

$10 for 1 person, $10 for popcorn, $7 for large soda, and now $5 for candy.

Hell, I'll wait 2 months, rent it, and save $26, tax not included.

The prices these days are outrageous!

Exactly. Renting on DVDs on the other hand, are becoming cheaper! At one time, I think I was paying $4 per DVD. Now you can pay around 20 bucks a month and go thru Netflix or Blockbuster for unlimited rental. I still rent from my local Blockbuster(awesome foreign film section 👍 ), and I pay $3.29 for one new release + one older release free. They also give me two free regular rentals a month, free. For every 5 or 6 rentals, another free rental. I love it!

 

[sukerkin]

I'm not too annoyed by the plethora of adverts before a film.

I would be if I had to sit through them but I never go in to the auditorium until ten minutes or so after the film has supposedly started these days.

It backfired once the other year when they only showed five minutes of adverts but it's usually a successful tactic.

Of course, if cinema prices were lower then I'd probably have to go in 'on time' and watch the adverts as I wouldn't be able to get a good seat otherwise ...

I quite agree about the outrageous ticket and refreshment prices. When I take Lady S to the pictures it usually costs me roughly £13 for tickets and £15 for popcorn, drinks, snacks et al. I could take her out for dinner at an okay restaurant for not much more than that!

 

[Flerbizky]

They need to stop the advertising before the movies and start using more product placement IN the movies.. Like "I, Robot"... That was a f*ing display of PP if there ever was.. I think Maddox sums it up very well...

 

[Swift]

They need to stop the advertising before the movies and start using more product placement IN the movies.. Like "I, Robot"... That was a f*ing display of PP if there ever was.. I think Maddox sums it up very well...

Yep,

I mean, the companies have to PAY for the commercial time right? So why are our admission and refreshment prices constantly rising? They should be going down or at least staying the same.

But if this is the way that hollywood wants to treat us. Like we're somekind of addicted morons and will go to the movies no matter what, they are sorely mistaken in my case.

 

[Dave A]

Hollywood doesn' control the Cinema's, it's the same all over. I had to sit through 30 mins of adverts before War of the worlds, I was disgusted at it. I have sat through \ lot of adverts before, but 30 F'ING mins takes the piss. They might as well tell you to pick up the soap as you enter.

 

[Swift]

Hollywood doesn' control the Cinema's, it's the same all over. I had to sit through 30 mins of adverts before War of the worlds, I was disgusted at it. I have sat through \ lot of adverts before, but 30 F'ING mins takes the piss. They might as well tell you to pick up the soap as you enter.

My point exactly and yes they do. Infact, Lucas told theaters that they have to have a limited number I believe 7 mins before any star wars movie. I know not everyone has the pull of Lucas, but the point is that it could be done if they wanted to.

 

[Dave A]

Evveryone in the movie industry has an influence somewhere. But I could happily put up with 7 mins, 20-30 though is way too many.

 

[Sage]

When I went to see War of the Worlds, I sat through so many previews that I actually forgot what movie I had come for! Seriously, I couldn't remember until I saw Tom Cruise, then it clicked.

I would go just for DVDs, but I don't have a decent TV/stereo system.

 

[Swift]

Evveryone in the movie industry has an influence somewhere. But I could happily put up with 7 mins, 20-30 though is way too many.

Right and Lucas knew that since Star wars was so popular that they would love to put umpteen commercials and previews in front of it. But, having some common sense, he realized that people can't stand that crap and put a limit on the amount.

 

[Anderton Prime]

I used to work at a large movie theatre chain as an usher and then as a treasurer / manager, so I know a bit about why things cost what they do.

When I started, a ticket cost $10 (Canadian). The money from ticket sales is not profit; it goes towards operating the theatre, and bidding on films (not sure about any other country, but in Canada there's a law that regulates how much distance must exist between two movie theatres showing the same movie, so since they're all pretty much built close to each other to compete, only one of the two theatres in my neighbourhood plays a movie; it's never at two theatres at the same time). However, I noticed that while I worked there, the price of tickets kept going up .25 cents at a time about twice a year. I assume this was because AMC appeared in Canada and began stealing customers and their money away from the chain I worked for.

The profit all comes from the food, and that's why the mark-up is so staggering. They don't allow you to bring your own food, and they know most people like to eat and / or drink something while watching a movie, so they've basically got a license to print money; they can charge pretty much whatever they want for popcorn, soda, and candy, as long as it's within reason, or else people won't buy it.

I also heard another justification for prices at movie theatres. Going to see a movie is basically a night's entertainment, similar to going out for dinner, to a comedy club, to a dance club, a bar, a baseball game, etc. So when you compare prices movies are actually cheaper, even when you factor in the price of candy, and buying candy is OPTIONAL!

Why not eat before seeing the movie? Or if you're less scrupulous, buy some candy at a supermarket or a drugstore and sneak it in. As for popcorn, if you must have it, you'll probably have to buy it since it's pretty hard to smuggle in without a backpack or a large coat, and you've got to prepare it at home and then it's no longer warm and fresh.

Anyway, the theatre I worked at got its ticket prices all the way to about $14 last year, and I guess they took a look at their books and decided they should drop those prices to bring people back. Now prices for a ticket are stable around $10 or $11 everywhere you go.

As for the commercials, I hate watching so many of them too. Lots of theatres have slideshows filled with advertisements that play non-intrusively before the movie, and I don;t mind these since you can choose to tune them out if you want, and there are usually games and trivia scattered between the ads (though some chains now have audio to go with their slides, and this sucks big time).

There should be nothing but trailers before the feature presentation. But since some places like putting literally 10 to 15 minutes of COMMERCIALS, not even including trailers, you have to exercise the only power bestowed upon you as consumers, and either complain by writing a letter or simply shop around and see if there's a chain that doesn't put as many ads on. Where I live, there are three movie theatre companies. Two of them are big on the 5 or 6 commercials in front of the movie, but their ticket prices are about $1 less. The other chain puts maybe 2 ads before each movie, but have a slightly more expensive ticket price. All you have to do is figure out whether you'd rather spend more money or watch more ads.

 

[Swift]

Thanks for the good explaination Anderton. It doesn't work that way for movies in America as far as the competition thing goes(at least I don't think). Or the proximity isn't as large. But again, thanks for the breakdown.

 

[Danoff]

Even when I did go to the movies I never would buy the food there. I'm always surprised at how many people simply don't have the self control to walk by the $100 popcorn tubs and watch the movie without eating or drinking.

But now that's over. I can't even go to the movies because they're so expensive. I almost exclusively rent now. When I see an advertisement for an upcoming movie that I think I'll want to see, I put it on my netflix queue.

The only time I go see movies now is when I really really really want to see it right away - in which case I spring for IMAX so that at least the picture quality is good.


Again it all comes down to self control.

Can I wait 4 months to see Fever Pitch/War of the Worlds/Constantine/Troy if it means saving a ton of money on the tickets, not having to sit next to people and listen to them eat/talk/stop their babies from crying, not having to cringe at the ungodly loud sounds system, and eating popcorn that didn't cost me $5 g's? Yes, yes I can.


Seriously the sounds can be out of control. I remember actually feeling sharp pains in my ears at the sound of a silenced gun. It was SILENCED!!! When an arrow flying through the air makes you wince - you know the movie is too loud.

 

[sukerkin]

Crikey! That's bad Dan.

I've had films that were a bit too loud with explosions aand the like and I've experienced cinema's substitute volume for quality in their sound-systems but earslaps from supposedly quiet sounds takes the cake.

On the snacks cost of cinema going, if it was up to me they wouldn't get a penny but Lady S simply must have her popcorn/coke/chockie fix :shrugs:.

On the ticket cost front, thanks for the 'insider info', Anderton. I would imagine that over here in England it's simple greed that does it rather than a practical cause like bidding wars for films (or am I just being cynical now?).

The thing that really sticks in my craw is that, back in the 80's, I paid a tiny fraction of the current cost (something of the order of 20 to 50 pence rather than £6.50 or so).

As a qualified economist, I can tell you as expert testimony that, in general, things double in price every decade. Let's do the math together and see if that works out ...

 

[smellysocks12]

Yeah really annoying. They should play the commercials while people are still walking into the theater and then start the movie at the announced time. Usually commercials on tv pay for your movie / program. In a theater you pay 10 bucks to watch a movie without getting bothered by commercials, yet recently more and more commercials are being played there. Next time you might as well stay at home.


... ****, you might as well illegally download the movie just so you don't have to sit through all the commercials.... and buy the dvd later.

 

[Anderton Prime]

danoff, I understand your hatred for movie theatre food, but I stick to my original explanation which justifies the price of a ticket. If you don't want to spend the money to see a movie in theatres, then obviously movies aren't that important to you. For lots of people, however, there is such a difference between seeing something like Revenge of the Sith on the big screen and seeing it at home that it's almost no contest. When I saw The Punisher in theatres, I loved it and was telling everyone about it. But when I went to rent it and watch it again, I actually DETESTED the movie. To me that's an example of the difference the big screen has the potential to make. It truly is a form of magic. Movies were ALWAYS meant to be seen in a theatre setting, ever since they were first conceived. Whereas The Punisher was a crap movie, even movies I've still loved after seeing them in both the theatre and then later on DVD have lost something in the transition. You can honestly say The Return of the King is good enough on DVD, especially if you haven't seen it in theatres? If so, you've either no idea what you're missing, or you couldn't care less. I suspect it's the latter, in which case this discussion should be moot to you.

As for the volume problem you experienced, I've been to well over TWO THOUSAND movies in my life, and not once have I experienced any pain from the volume. I suspect you had a sadistic projectionist who cranked the volume up way too high, and should treat it as an isolated incident. In fact, when I go see movies I frequently find they are too quiet to hear everything; in my opinion, real surround sound (not the rinky-dink crap most people buy in a box and set up in their family rooms to try and feebly re-create the theatre atmosphere) is meant to be blasted, depending on what type of movie you're watching. I wouldn't want my seat to pulsate while watching Cast Away or Supersize Me, but I don't see a problem in having the walls vibrate while Obi-Wan and Anakin square off. However, under no circumstances should it be so loud your ears are actually hurting. I wonder, were you the only one who experienced this? Has it happened more than once? At the same theatre or different ones? You should ask the people around you next time to make sure it's not just you, in which case your complaint against the theatre itself is pretty much invalid. And why the heck would you sit through an entire movie with sharp pains in your ears without complaining? You could have gotten some free passes, or even had the volume turned down! The rule where I worked, crappy though it was, was that if even one guest complained about the volume, we had to adjust it to suit their needs, even if it was to the chagrin of the other 400+ guests in the same theatre.

 

[a6m5]

.... not having to sit next to people and listen to them eat/talk/stop their babies from crying, not having to cringe at the ungodly loud sounds system, and eating popcorn that didn't cost me $5 g's? Yes, yes I can.

That bugs me SO MUCH! I'm one of those guys who like to watch silently, and so are most of the people I go see the movies with. Please! when you're in the movie theater, don't makes comments or narrate the movie every couple of minutes. Don't turn your phone on vibrate and light up the whole area when someone calls, phones should be off. And whatever you do, please don't answer it!

As far as the sound system goes, I've experienced some bad ones, but not last couple of years or so. I think the movie theaters today really got it together. Of course, it's still no match for your home theater systems, but is way better than it used to be IMO.

P.S. I'd like to thank Anderton for his very informative posts, also.

 

[Pupik]

They need to stop the advertising before the movies and start using more product placement IN the movies...

Although the ads before the actual movie are annoying, finding too much "product placement" in movies nowadays makes me sicker. Once or twice, fine. But when movies put logos on stuff left and right, you feel like your ticket price went to pure profit.

 

[ExigeEvan]

I went to the cinema the other day and there was 20mins of adverts before the movie info card (the black screen with rating etc) came up.

It kind of makes you wonder why cinemas tell you the movie length and not the full cinema experience length.

 

[Anderton Prime]

Over here they do tell you the entire length, including feature and all commercials. They have to...they tell you when it all starts and when it's all over. When I worked at the theatre, we learned to subtract about 15-20 minutes off each time length because of commercials and trailers in order to get the real length of the movie.

 

[a6m5]

Over here they do tell you the entire length, including feature and all commercials. They have to...they tell you when it all starts and when it's all over. When I worked at the theatre, we learned to subtract about 15-20 minutes off each time length because of commercials and trailers in order to get the real length of the movie.

That's the way it should be. Actually, I think requiring theaters to note the length of commercials, along with the length of the film would be a good idea. When you're checking the showtime schedules, you can choose to boycott the theater chain, that's forcing you to watch 15 minutes of commercials.

 

[Swift]

That's the way it should be. Actually, I think requiring theaters to note the length of commercials, along with the length of the film would be a good idea. When you're checking the showtime schedules, you can choose to boycott the theater chain, that's forcing you to watch 15 minutes of commercials.

Yeah, that our you can come 10-15 minutes later if you want to skip the commercials. Of course then you'd be giving up prime seating. So it's a catch 22.

 

[a6m5]

Yeah, that our you can come 10-15 minutes later if you want to skip the commercials. Of course then you'd be giving up prime seating. So it's a catch 22.

Oh, yeah. Personally, I always arrive early and put up with the commercials(I wish I did that for work ), so I can get the seats in center, little bit forward from the center. But if the schedule showed that Regal Cinema's showing 15 minutes of CMs compared to Century Cinema's 10, people will tend to go to Century. That will keep the theaters honest, but that'll never happen!

 

[FoolKiller]

When I was in college (3 years ago) I worked for a Cinemark theater in Kentucky and we showed the full time from preview start to credit ending.

The ticket prices were dictated from the home office and were partly, but not completely, determined by studio charges. The US doesn't have teh regulations about two theaters showing teh same movie so they usually just pay a fee. Most of the ticket price went back to the production/distribution company. All profits for the individual theater came from the food prices, which is why they are so high.

The commercials before the movie actually came in a separate small reel from the production companies and what was shown beforehand was determined by the production companies and then the theater chain was allowed one spot for themselves. This is why you will hear how a new trailer for a certain movie will be shown before a specific movie across the country. The only time this changed was when the individual chain had specific rules. For instance, we couldn't show the Axe ads before a kids film.

I hate the commercials too, but I like watching previews. With that said, as an usher who had been assigned seating detail at busy movies I must say that you should show up before it starts for a blockbuster film. If you show up for "Harry Potter," "Star Wars," etc in a group of 10 people 15 minutes after the published start time of the movie do not expect to sit together. When this happens do not yell at the usher who is not responsible for your late arrival.


All that aside, I also hate the commercials and don't think I should have to watch an advertisement when I paid already. Hollywood wonders why their sales are slipping every year and I woudl say that the advertisements are a part of it, although my major complaint is that there is no original content anymore. If it isn't a remake of a tv show or movie it is based off a book or comic. Anyone else notice that the Acadamy Awrads now have an award for best original screenplay? That is because the original "talent" in Hollywood cannot compete against things based on other forms of entertainment.

That is my movie complaints. Oh, and they need to hire an actress that has acting ability first and good looks second.