By Spencer Michlin, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-560015.mp3
Dallas, TX –
At the movies, when I see spots, I see red. After a lifetime of loving films and the theaters that show them, that amount of onscreen advertising that we're now subjected to has made me angry enough to call for a revolt.
There's a mildly vulgar phrase that marketers use it to calculate how much consumers will stand for before they walk away: "the piss off factor". What is the optimal balance of telephone operators to hold time? Of overbooked seats to people at the gate? Of p-o'ed people in your theater to those who now refuse to go?
To be fair, theater owners, called "exhibitors" in the trade, have been squeezed by rising rents for both the films they show and the space in which they show them. Ticket sales peaked in 2002 and have decreased or remained flat since then, and exhibitors must pay as much as 90 percent of their box office revenue to the studios.
Obviously, raising already ridiculous ticket prices would hurt more than it would help. Which leaves the candy store. Ahh, and selling advertising, which some exhibitors have embraced with a crassness that would make Donald Trump tremble.
Truth is, I don't think that most people mind a couple of commercials, especially if they're well done and amusing like those for Stella Artois Beer that play at the Inwood and the Magnolia. But many exhibitors have gone too far, particularly AMC Theaters. At this point, I'd include a quote from AMC defending their advertising policies, but every level of management there has refused comment with a discipline that would have done Mao's China proud.
The worst offender in town is the new AMC NorthPark 15. At a recent matinee there, the advertised start time for my show was 1:55 p.m. The preceding show broke 50 minutes earlier. The lights came up and the screen went dark. For 30 seconds! The next 44 and a half minutes were devoted to advertising, beginning with a parade of slides accompanied by limp rock 'n roll.
About 12 minutes into the break, the lights dimmed to half strength, and the sell began in earnest with a festering horror called "First Look". "First Look" consisted of two overlength trailers surrounded by a total of 28 commercials for cars, credit cards and colas, as well as reminders of how the audience should behave during the movie ("Silence Is Golden" seems like advice AMC itself should heed.) Perhaps most extraordinary, six of these ads were for television shows! "First Look" finally ended about five minutes before the posted start time of the film.
No so fast! Now the lights dimmed fully and the trailers began. Seven of them lasting about 22 minutes. At long last came the movie, 17 minutes past its scheduled time. Apart from everything else, shouldn't theaters be compelled to post accurate start times for the feature or, at minimum, for the trailers?
While, I believe that audiences enjoy trailers, there's a limit. Don't forget, these are also advertising, and who wants 22 minutes of them, especially when they're preceded by nearly 45 minutes of advertising after we've already paid our $9.50? $9.50!
There's already a connection between flat box office sales and on-screen advertising, and operators will go as far as we let them. But it works both ways. If enough of us let management know that we're p-o'd and won't be back until they change their policy, they'll change it. They know that we have a wealth of ways and places to enjoy films without seeing spots or seeing red.
Spencer Michlin is a writer from Dallas.
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