People sue theaters over commercials before movie (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030220/film_nm/film_movieads_dc_1)

Despite my feelings that too many people sue over too many things, I'm with these people.

Where can I sign onboard for some frontline action.

Its perverse isn't it. Paying your 10 beans for someone/some company to bombard you with adverstisements.

The movie going public is a huge focus group for marketing. Next they'll be placing camera's in the theatre and customizing advertisements according to the group's reactions.

Cheers!

This suit's going nowhere except the publicity route. But I certainly agree with its spirit. I rarely go to theaters any more. I made an exception last December and regretted it. Nearly thirty minutes of ads and trailers, followed by a film that was too long and a bit thin in the plot line. Not to mention the filthy film print projected slightly out of focus and bouncing around so much from gate jitter it gave me a headache. All enjoyed in the comfort of a filthy theater. So what's not to like?

Yeah, Dylan it's pretty sad when the experience you get in a living room with a nice projector is better than a huge theatre with expensive projection and blast 'em sound.

Pros of going to a theatre:
- you actually leave your house
- shared audience experience
- big picture
- see a film that you normally couldn't rent (festivals, indies)
- someone else cleans up the mess
- film released in theatres first *variable

Cons:
- big ticket price
- expensive concessions
- a**holes in the audience
- underlighting on the projection
- too much volume in the audio
- 30 minutes of commercials
- not comfortable chairs
- set times

Pros of staying at home:
- less expensive than going out
- comfortable couch vs chairs *variable
- audience you can pick or eject
- your own food and drink, alcohol possible *variable
- watch whenever you want

Cons of staying at home:
- you don't get out of your house
- hard to rent festival films
- no large shared experience (unless you get together a party)
- smaller picture *variable
- smaller sound *variable
- you clean up the mess
- gotta return the movie *variable
- have to wait for films to be released on DVD *variable

A lot of these pros and cons are rapidly changing as people get their hands on some excellent projection and put together awesome sound at home. Many films worth seeing aren't actually released in theatres but you *have* to order on DVD. In particular, overseas productions. For example, you can go to Chinatown right now and get a nice bootleg of Zhang Yimou's heralded "Hero". The release date for North America hasn't even been announced!

All the ads before movies has resulted in me going to far less movies, they always piss me off. I think I need to start using Netflix, with them you should be able to get ahold of just about any film.

Even with Netflix, there are a good number of DVDs with mandatory trailers displayed before the menu will come up.

Actually, surprisingly few. When a saw theater-style trailers and ads spew forth from a Disney DVD a few years ago I thought "Oh no, here we go. They're going to wreck this, too." But out of nearly 450 DVD's that we own and the 3-4 Netflix discs per week that we watch I only recall 1 or 2 that had pre-crap.

Sshhh! Let's not talk about this too loudly.

The original laserdisc version of Hitchcock's "Dial M For Murder" featured a trailer and old newsreels that original (circa) 1954-55 theater patrons would have seen. Now THAT was good stuff! Sadly, the DVD release ommitted that material.

I think I'm gonna sue you guys for making me read all that, and wastin' 5 minutes of my life!

-Nori

I don't mind the trailers. Granted they are still trying to sell you something.

I'd be much happier if the theaters advertised the ACTUAL start time of the movie. You almost always arrive there early, so you'd probably still see the commercials.

Not that it matters. Can't fight the machine.

What's this Netflix thing?
If they start putting more ads on DVDs, it'll be the final insult.

Regardless of commercials...there's nothing like watching a movie on one of the huge old-era screens, though. Not sure how many of those still exist in North America, but you can still find them here.

For me, going to the movies became less of an experience when they starting making the multi-plexes, with the quarter-size screens. Felt like going from a Cadillac to a Volkswagen...and still does.

So...we should also sue on the basis that size DOES matter. Let's get the movie-going experience back to the way it was.

There are plenty of good theatres in Vancouver that have excellent screens and stadium seating. It's not the venue that's the problem in most cases here. It's more the content and other parts of the experience.

http://www.netflix.com

You pay $20 a month for unlimited DVD rentals.

Basically you have three at any time and whenever you return one they mail you the next one on your rental list. Since they have a huge inventory you're more likely to find rare movies as opposed to going to blockbuster. BTW All shipping is free.

The upcoming, and most insidious, hazard ahead lies in advertainment or "branded entertainment". This is basically the concept of weaving promotions into the storylines of films and broadcast programming. If you think it's an odd outlier movement think again. Film companies are working on this new business opportunity. Mandalay Films has created Mandalay Branded Entertainment, for example, dedicated to this concept. Companies like auto manufacturers and beverage purveyors are sponsoring free seminars, directed mainly to young wannabe Spielbergs, teaching techniques of weaving their products into prominent visual and storyline positions of scripts. It's a clever move. Many young filmmakers will likely see this as their big, and probably only, chance to make a feature not realizing that they will become, at best, minor technicians on their own projects.

Of course this will churn forth hundreds of miles of film garbage and perhaps lead to a backlash that ultimately recesses the public theater business. But the grind of growth and earnings that publicly-held businesses face is relentless. It appears that all legal, and some illegal, avenues must be pursued to such ends.

Sony's trying something new here in Japan. They're sending out young, attractive people to bars and other social-gathering places with strategies on how to strike up a conversation that will lead to promoting one of their products. You never know that's what they're doing or that they work for Sony... it comes across as just making conversation or passing on personal info.

How's that for stealth advertising?

Imagine how easy this would be for movie advertising. Someone sits down next to you at a bar and has a page of Premiere magazine open featuring the movie they're promoting. They look over at you..."Hey, have you seen this movie? I just saw it. Awesome. You should check it out."

"I'd be much happier if the theaters advertised the ACTUAL start time of the movie. You almost always arrive there early, so you'd probably still see the commercials."

As with most changes in the exhibition business, this can be blamed on STAR WARS. Prior to its success, advertised movie start times were the real deal, trailers followed the feature presentation (hence the name), and trailers, film shorts, newsreels, cartoons, etc. ran pretty much continuously, along with B movies (full length films double-billed along with the feature that you weren't necessarily expected to sit through). All these extras were holdovers from the vaudevillian origins of film exhibition, when feature films would be accompanied by various live acts as well as film shorts.

Through 1977, when you bought your movie ticket, you could sit down in the theater through as many projection cycles as you wished. When STAR WARS fans took advantage of this to stay through multiple continous showings (despite the fact that all of them were sold out), exhibitors initiated the policy of clearing the theaters after each showing.

Nowadays, advertisements have replaced the cartoons, muzak has replaced the newsreels, the feature attractions are B movies, and the only live entertainment acts are the underpaid ushers mopping up $4/cup spilled Sierra Mist.

Another thing movie theaters had going for them in the good old era of unlimited viewings was that they tended to be the only buildings equipped with air conditioning, and thus they served as daytime refuge for the masses during the hot months. Such a practice might seem anachronistic in this age, but during last summer's August heat wave I found myself in Berlin, a city in which air conditioning in public buildings is still not common. A cool movie theater would have been, pardon the expression, just the ticket.

My mother oftentimes waxes nostalgic for seeing the stars in movie theaters. Not just movie stars up the screen: even the smaller movie palaces had astronomically-correct constellations painted on the ceiling with radium. While waiting for the next Merry Melodies you could brush up on your expertise of the cosmos, she tells me. I'm interested if any of the other old fogies on the boards remember those days, or know of any theaters that still have the radium stars. (Probably, they were taken down along with all the asbestos.)

Those offended by commercials shown before movies shouldn't move to Germany, where pre-feature ads may contain nudity and sexual content regardless of the rating of the film they're attached to. Can you guess what this one (http://www.laettahoch2.de/html/spots/laettah2_big.rm) is advertising?

At the 4th Ave Theater in Anchorage the have lighted stars on the ceiling. Course it isn't used as a movie theater anymore except for occasional snowmachine movie premieres and the like.

yes,
i heard the same thing a couple weeks ago. there was a big stink about companies trying to do away with TIVO because one can easily skip commercials (well i'm sure this is only one of many reasons behind this push). i don't care for it at all. in my opinion it seems like there must be a lack of creativity on the part of advertisers if the only way they can get us "hooked" on their products is by forcing us to view them.

Robert, I don't know what that's advertising, but I'm buying!
No wait, then I would end up in bed with two men!

I remember when theaters had stars over them, except we called them Drive-Ins. But that's a whole 'nother thread.

Once upon a time my wife and I would take the kiddies to the drive in on Saturday night. Pile into the station wagon put blankets in back for the little angels and off we'd go. We could see 2 movies, have popcorn and a couple of softdrinks get 2 or 3 kids (depends on the year) asleep and even have a little fun ourselves for about what it costs for 1 ticket to the movies today.
Ahhh, the good old days, the moon, the stars, the 'B' movies, the kids fighting or crying in the back, the lucky young lovers next to us, my wife sleeping in the seat next to me, what a memory. Things haven't changed much, she still sleeps in the seat next to me just not at the drive in, in front of the big screen at home. Oh yeah, the kids are grown and gone but now I have a dog. She sleeps too!
Ain't that something!

Don,
That absolutely was the life. During the summer, when I got old enough to drive or have friends that drove, we'd go out to the drive-in and just enjoy the warm summer breezes and the b-movies. It was one of the best times of my life. (Since you're also a Chicagoan you may have gone to the same one, which was at Harlem and Irving.)

Robert Knecht Schmidt

Actually you were a little off.

The first movie to clear the theatre and to have strict starting and ending times was Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho (1960). It was an amazing campaign, they had life size cut outs of him pointing at his watch. It also caused the first major existence of booking tickets and HUGE lines around corners. Sure there were lines before, but this had scheduled screenings with lines reaching 4 or 5 blocks.

Zac

Right, the whole "no patron will be seated after the start of the performance" gimmick that was used to market the film...

This didn't change how movies in general were exhibited, whereas with STAR WARS and the beginning of the blockbuster era (wherein studios and exhibitors alike made all their profits from just one film a year) did usher in the "one ticket, one showing" policy.

Hey Ken,
Although I had been there as a teen, my wife ,kids and I went to the Sunset on McCormick Blvd (Kedzie). I think they actually considered it Skokie. Not there no more no more. Too bad,wouldn't mind going again.

If she's simply suing because she is given the time the commercials start rather than the time the film starts, then she's right(in my mind) because that's a violation of truth in advertisement; but then all the theatres have to do is change their recording to, "trailers begin at..." which diesn't solve much.

If she's suing because she doesn't want commercials, Oh well. She doesn't like it, I don't like it, but that's capitalism.

Who's really to blame may be Hollywood, if they gave the theatre cineplexes at least 10% of the box office collectings, maybe the theatres could earn their living on just concessions and not need the commercials to survive.

Anyway, I think theartes as we know it will be gone in 20 years. I can get a better lux, luminance, and color from a $1500 LCD or DLP projector than I get from most of the theatres around here(about the price of 100 trips to the multiplex if I get pop and popcorn/2 years of yuppie moviegoing/or about 2 month for parents:)) , and my modest home system has more dynamic range and faithful sound than even the best theatre acoustics, except Imax or THX (only because they're multi-channel).

Has anyone had any experience with film clubs? Like book clubs but for film?

There is nothing like the big screen to watch a movie. I don't go as much as i used to, but when there is a movie with a big budget and lots of special effects, and stunts, that's the best way to watch it. The ads suck but after 40 + years of TV ads it is not that big of a deal. I don't like it but!!!!One of the reasons we pay so much for tickets and have to watch mountain dew ads is that you have to pay some actor 20 million a picture.

It's really strange, but Hollywood clamors to keep picture length down to a minimum, mostly for the exhibitor's sake, so that they can cram a maximum number of showings in per day. (Gods and Generals's superlong running time will all but doom it.) This being the goal, you'd think exhibitors who sell ad time may be shooting themselves in the foot when they screen a half hour of ads and trailers in front of every showing of a popular movie, when instead they could pack in and extra screening of the film each day and rake in the box office receipts.

Hopefully they have smart accountants that compute break-even points for such things.

For those that were wondering, it's a commercial for margarine (http://www.laettahoch2.de/html/spots/laettah2_big.rm).

Keith,

Film cafés... screenings in coffeeshops... are catching on over here now. I guess that's along the lines of a film club. How about back there? Are they common over there yet?

I haven't heard of a film cafe. At least not hear in central Illinois. How do they work? New films or old? Indendent films?

Down here in Texas, there's no such thing as the film cafe. Instead we have the film beer hall. Check out the Alamo Cinema Draft House (http://www.drafthouse.com/).

John, I don't know. I'd like to check one out sometime but I'm afraid of other people's tastes.

I mean, what if I show up to a viewing bringing "Audition" and people are in the mood for "Pretty Woman"?

:)

Actually, that could be entertaining in itself.

In Vancouver there is Guy Movie Night at Dylan's House.
Rules
1) BYOB. Leave the leftovers.
2) Excessive drunken talking during movies will keep you from getting invited back.
3) Breaking Dylan's bubble hockey table will result in having your remaining beer confiscated.
4) Movies are chosen by vote ahead of time.
5) Dylan gets first choice of chairs.

Bob, they show indie films. Basically it's an opportunity for local filmmakers to gauge the audience response to their films.

Dylan... leftovers?! BYOB leftovers?! Never heard of such a thing.

Keith..."Audition"? That one hasn't made it hear yet. I'm guessing this is something I should check out a.s.a.p.

Chris...Alamo Cinema Draft...that must be something new since I left. Sounds cool. Does the Paramount still have double features during the summer? For those of you not from the Austin area, the Paramount is one of those gorgeous early 1900s theaters...big red velvet curtain, lots of dark wood and gold trimmings, opera boxes, and a great balcony. It's intended for live performances, but in the summer they show classic double-features, usually black & white, and usually following a theme. I remember a "Bogie Night" they had a few years back. All the staff wore raincoats and hats and called you "schweetheart." Best thing about the Paramount is that they have a full bar. So, load up on Gin and Tonics, settle in to the air-conditioning, sit on the front row of the balcony so that you're eye-level with actors, and then kick back with a gorgeous date and watch some Bogart on a huge old screen in a beautiful theater... what could be better than that? Well...okay...Guy Movie Night at Dylan's House runs a pretty close race (I take that back. Anything with a date trumps Guy Night.)

Dylan... are you picking a chair? Man... I'm all over the couch.
Nothin' more comfy than that! Couch in dead center of a projector
in the sweet spot of the sound. Lights all down, everyone quiet
(otherwise no invites back) and lets enjoy some movie....

Now I am going to do some special events in the near future...
things like:

- Watching all of 24 season 1 real-time
- Watching LoTR trilogy
- Matrix trilogy
- Star Wars double trilogy
- Godfather trilogy
(ofcourse this is all back-to-back with only the necessary
breaks for bathroom use and such)

Anyone have some time left? <grin>

It's a film by Takashi Miike (Dead or Alive series, Fudoh, Ichi the Killer) about a widower who after an extended mourning period decides to get a wife by an unusual method. As a producer in the film business he convinces a friend to help stage an audition for a new film and sets out the same criteria for the actress as he would for his dream wife (young, intelligent but traditional). Although the process introduces its share of doubts, he comes across the submission by a beautiful former dancer and is instantly struck by her introspective writing. He decides to pursue her outside of the interview process and becomes obsessed with her. She agrees to meet with him and she seems perfect.

Too perfect.

The rest I cannot spoil. It's delicious.

So John do they charge the filmaker something to show their film? Or just charge admission?