Theater & Advertising

[s dog]

Back in the late 70s or maybe it was early 80s several of the theaters i went to would run advertizements for the local business owners across the big screen before the movie started, I never see them do that anymore, All they have now is some movie trivia you can answer in you head quietly, I wander why they stopped running the ads, BTW im glad they did most of the ads were stupid and worse than the movie trivia i have to put up with now.

[Smokey]

I hope they go back showing cartoons before the main movie like they used to do instead of endless reviews and trivia

[s dog]

I hope they go back showing cartoons before the main movie like they used to do instead of endless reviews and trivia

Yea, that would be ok.

[nightflier]

How about showing previews of other movies between the movie times? Then they could actually start the movie when they say it starts, not 20 minutes later. And I wouldn't mind if they got rid of the SUV, Army, and LA Times commercials, too. If I'm paying for a movie, I don't want to see commercials. With all the crappy commercials, there's little that sets it apart from TV anymore and the point of going to the movies gets moot.

[ForeverAutumn]

Back in the late 70s or maybe it was early 80s several of the theaters i went to would run advertizements for the local business owners across the big screen before the movie started, I never see them do that anymore, All they have now is some movie trivia you can answer in you head quietly, I wander why they stopped running the ads, BTW im glad they did most of the ads were stupid and worse than the movie trivia i have to put up with now.

My best guess is that the cost of running an ad has become too expensive for small business. Coca Cola is willing to pay a lot more for an ad spot than Mom and Pop Small Business can afford.

And that movie trivia might seem annoying and pointless, but it's really all upcoming movie promotions disguised as Trivia. It's all valuable face time with consumer hostages.

[kexodusc]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't mind the Trivia, or even the commercials they play on their screens.
I have a real beef with the adds that tell me movies are worth it so I shouldn't pirate them. Screw you! That's just insulting our intelligence.

As for the rest of the ads, well, we hold a few theater companies in our portfolio - these guys typically don't make a ton of money considering the large capital investment they have to come up with - there's some ridiculous overhead, and crazy restrictions that the big Movie Studios force theaters to abide by that restrict opportunities for cost control and revenue growth. I suspect if not for whatever revenue these ads bring in, costs would be even higher. I still find theaters that don't do anything, to be honest I'd rather the trivia and what not than be forced to over hear a bunch of teenage kids exploits from the night before.
Sometimes I wish the industry would consolidate a lot more and start putting more conditions on Hollywood instead of the other way around. We might all be better served that way.

[Woochifer]

Oh believe me, ads are alive and well! I know that a few UA theaters in SoCal started showing ads in the late-70s, and I remember that they'd get roundly booed by audiences, so that practice stopped for a while. Then a few years later, all of the major theaters in SoCal started showing ads for the LA Times, which were often made to look like moviemaking documentaries. Some of them were interesting (like showing how foley effects are done), but they were ads nonetheless. My understanding is that theater owners were forced to show those ads because in return the LA Times gave theaters a break on display ad space that they would otherwise be unable to afford.

Nowadays, I think audiences are more conditioned to seeing ads, so the pushback is less severe than in the late-70s. Also, those advertising slide shows have been around for quite a while, though with DLP projectors, they can also be a lot more intrusive than before.

Unfortunately, as kex notes, this is just the reality of the economics. Movie theaters make little off the box office receipts for movies, and are forced to keep the doors open by pushing the overpriced concessions items, renting auditoriums for conferences and business meetings, and accepting more advertising. Compounding this is the massive megaplex building frenzy by the major theater chains during the late-90s, which ballooned their debt while building more theaters than audiences could absorb. With already thin margins and oversupply in the market, it was pretty much inevitable that theater owners would resort to maximizing their revenue wherever possible, even if it potentially pisses off some of their customers.

[musicman1999]

Went to a film here in Nova Scotia a couple of weeks ago,the ticket was $8.95,medium popcorn and Pepsi was $9.60 and i still had to watch 3 ads before the previews that preceded the film.I do not know what margins on a film are,but i have a pretty good idea what they are on the food.Not watching ads is one of the things i enjoy about the theatre and wish that they would go away.

bill