BBtB

Okay here is a little topic we have all talked about before BUT here goes again.. I went and saw dreamcatcher tonight. Show started at 7:05 the movie started at 7:30. There were not even any comercials that was ALL previews. Now granted the biggest problem was the "short film" the animatrix which while cool was still really just a long preview for the matrix. My question is how long should previews be before a movie? I think when you are pushing the 10 minute mark you are pushing it.

Reese

True, animatrix was a bit long for someone who didn't really care about it, but I haven't met that someone yet who didn't think it was somewhat cool. Other than that I believe there were only 2 other commercials which I cant even remember :/

heh

I kind of agree with you that sometimes movie previews can be really long. I watched Liberty stands still on VHS the other day and it had at least 20 minutes of previews. I almost turned it off before the movie even began.. I wish I had.. maybe the long previews were a warning of a bad movie ahead

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Grondar

The advertisements annoy me. $5-10 is still worth the same it did a few years ago when I didn't have to be subjected to ads at the theatre, but it's all about making money, so they will continue to add advertisements until the movie is paused mid-way to roll a Mentos commercial.

I am also starting to have negative views towards previews.

One example... I saw the Lord of the Rings preview, and it highlighted some pretty majoy scenes in the movie. As a result, when I went to the released movie, I was waiting for the scenes from the preview to show up, and this made my moviegoing experience not as enjoyable as it could have been, had I not seen the preview a few weeks earlier.

By knowing what preview scenes still remain, I am thinking about other things, like, "How much movie is left?" I haven't seen this "preview clip" in the movie yet, so there must be a few more things to come before the end.

Previews are cool, but lately they are ruining the experience of the full movie for me, as I would rather go into a movie knowing/seeing nothing about it.

CSflim

I quite enjoy trailers (or previews). But the thing that annoys me is that you are pretty much forced to watch them. Trailers should be seen as soemthign to keep you occupied while everyone is still arriving. i.e. a movie advertised to start at 7.00 should start at 7.00 They should do like they do with concerts and plays...advertise both a "doors open" time and a "show starts" time.

As for commercials advertising consumer products. Thats another thing entirely! I don't believe that cinmeas should be allowed to show these. They really annoy me!

-C.S. Flim

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Lebell

ARGGGH!

This is one of my bad bad hot buttons, paying for the priviledge to watch a commercial.

Look, run them before the show is supposed to start. Fine, great, then I can avoid them, but DON'T run them for 20 minutes or more before the freakin' movie.

Oh and when they tack them onto the front of a DVD or VHS is even worse. It's not like they give you a break on the price (here buy this dvd for 3 dollars less because it had Coca Cola and Ford commericials as well as 3 previews we are going to force you to watch). It's somewhat better on dvd (vhs got really bad with that) but now the dvd won't let you go straight to the menu, it forces you to at least load the preview before you can fast through it.

ARGGG!

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teflonian

We vote with our $'s. If you don't like a theaters policy don't watch movies at their theater. Organize a group of friends and go in and talk to the manager (even though he probably has no control as cinemark owns him).

I know this isn't going to work because it is not yet annoying enough fro the general public to organize that big of a resistance.

So, my ideological ideas out the window I will just comment on what I think of the previews/commercials.

Watching commercials at theater is ridiculous. We are then subjected to tons of product placement in the actual movie. I hope they do start to put mentos commercials in the middle of the movie... That will be the day I stop going to the theaters to watch movies. I do like previews though and would miss them if they were gone. It does get out of hand though when by the time the movie starts you have been there a half an hour already.

diergray

I dont mind the previews. I hate the commercials though!

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BBtB

I do not mind previews as long as they are not 25 minutes long! I mean when I am going to see a movie that is 2 and a half hours long in the first place this I don't need. And actully Grondar I think they will keep adding comercials untill we are paying 10 dollars to go see 2 hours of comercials. Only then will they be happy.

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Meridae'n once played "death" at a game of chess that lasted for over two years. He finally beat death in a best 34 out of 67 match. At that time he could ask for any one thing and he could wish for the hope of all mankind... he looked death right in the eye and said ...

"I would like about three fiddy"

Mr.Deflok

They're called trailers, I love them, I despise commercials though. If you don't like the ads then howabout walking into the theatre 5 minutes later, or at least bracing yourself for them, the ticket says it starts at 9:00 but realise that it won't start until 9:20.

Panopticon

I like seeing previews before the movies. Not a lot of them, but a few are always nice. I HATE seeing commercials for Pepsi and stuff like that, though. I saw a movie once that was supposed to start at 12:05 and it didn't start until 12:45 because there were about 4 or 5 previews as well as like 7 commercials.

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.:Panopticon:.

BBtB

I don't mind trailers at all. And ever comercials don't bug me THAT much. But 25 minutes of them or even 40!?! Thats just ludacris.

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Meridae'n once played "death" at a game of chess that lasted for over two years. He finally beat death in a best 34 out of 67 match. At that time he could ask for any one thing and he could wish for the hope of all mankind... he looked death right in the eye and said ...

"I would like about three fiddy"

teflonian

They used to be called trailers because they came after the movie... It doesn't feel right to call them trailers now even though I guess that is still the preffered word for um.

Cynthetiq

for US$10.50 a seat in New York City... I hate the commercials.. as pleasant as a smelly fart in an elevator, not much you can do about it but just breathe when the doors open.

at least in Singpaore it was US$3.00 and there was at least 30 minutes of commercials but it was a "doors open" and "movie starts at" place.

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yournamehere

I understand the need for previews, and some of them are cool to watch. I think 5 minutes of them is plenty, though.

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RAMONES!!!

they suck, they always show the good parts of the movies

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Cubby

I love the trailers. It tells me about the movies that are coming up since I don't always follow which ones are being created...but the commercials are just plain annoying. It would be different if the price of movies went down due to the extra advertising revenue but they are still going up...

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pickledaddy

I have always been a big fan of movie previews, but I hate the commercials. My local theaters have now had this thing called "The Twenty" which is, as far as I can tell, 20 minutes of commercials before the previews start. The worst part of "The Twenty" is that when it's finally over, it says "Remember, come to the theater at least 30 minutes before the show." Why? So I can watch more commercials?

Lord Humungus

I don't know if this has been a thread or not (search disabled for now) but I just wanted to say that I am getting real sick and tired of movie theaters forcing commercials down my throat. We pay alot of money to go see a movie and they are taking advantage of us by making us sit through 8 goddamn commercials. I went to see "The Last Samurai" and watched 8 fucking commercials of which I will never buy any of those products because of that fact. Movie theaters need to wiseup and eliminate those, not embrace them. I wish we could talk directly to the owners of AMC and Pacific Theaters and tell them to stop it. Those muther-f'in pieces o crap. Makes me not want to goto the movies.

Thank you for listening.

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I am still searching for the movie this quote was in...
"Make you strong, like bull", said in a russian accent
Post here if you know anything...PLEASE!

crfpilot

I agree 100%, a couple previews are fine but don't show me a fucking car commercial, if I wanted to buy a new car, I'd be at the fucking car lot!! And don't even get me started on the previews on DVD's that you buy, by the time I get around to watching the movie again, the movie that was previewed is a year old.

Mephisto2

So sign up for some kind of Pay per View movie channel. You wait a little longer for the movie, but if it annoys you so much you can enjoy advert free viewing.

Advertisements are a pain but that's life. That's how theatres make money.

Finally, one option is not to enter the theatre until 5 - 10 minutes have passed.

Mr Mephisto

crfpilot

I thought they made money on the $9 popcorn and $17 diet cokes.

That's a good idea to enter the theatre later, I'll have to remember that.

bartgroks

The movie commercials that really irritate me are the anti-piracy ones. Comparing copyright infringement to theft is silly in the first place but in that context it infuriates me. Copyright Infringement is someone denying another person the profit from their labor. Denying them compensation for their time. Its like advertising that a Movie starts at 10pm and then making me watch ads for 15 minutes.

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Batman976

Just so long as you don't mind sitting in the front row and staring straight up.

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Kaos

Although this has been done before and I posted my thoughts about it, I feel the need to repeat because I have strong feelings about this.

TV shows make their revenue with advertisements. TV programming, for the most part, is free. I will live with having to deal with commercials on TV because it keeps (most) shows on the air.

Movies generate revenue through Ticket sales, and later on through VHS and DVD sales. We generate the revenue to keep movies in the theatre and new ones created and there is no good reason why we should be subjected to 8, or 4 or even 1 commercial.

If I wanted to be told for the billionth time that Pepsi is better than Coke, that I should drive a Lexus and my clothes aren't good enough, I would stay home, watch TV and be told that for free.

Mr.Deflok

I haven't got a problem with it, and I'm a film enthusiast, I especially love watching the trailers, even though I've already probably downloaded them from Apple.com.

The only time I'll be pissed off is if they play a shortfilm or long advertisement that has no relevance to the feature at hand.

sailor

Which has become increasingly common--in fact, in every movie I have seen recently. That bugs me. I didnt pay $8 to see advertisements.

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CS733t

/Seinfeld What's the deal with those commercials, I mean c'mon people...you pay to watch a movie not see more advertisements

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So tired now of paying my dues
I start out strong but then I always lose
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Lord Humungus

dont get me wrong here. i love the see previews before the movie. thats totally cool. its always been part of the treat. to see whats coming out. but commercials are ridiculous and totally jacked up. theaters are totally taking advantage of us. they know we are going to get their early to get a good seat so we are forced to watch the commercials. if a movie theater was smart, they would start advertising as "the commercial free" theater and it would attrack alot of people. That is how bad is has gotten. I swear and Im not even exaggerating. The lights went off at 12:55pm and the movie started at 1:20pm. I say throught 8 commercials, 1 coca-cola short movie, the stupid theater ads and popcorn/concetation stand crap, 4 movie previews and finally the movie started. I was so pissed by the time the movie started.

I wish there was some way we could take the AMC and Pacific theater owners and make them listen to us. I want to see some movies on the big-screen but dont want to be subjected to those F*#@#$% commercials.

Ok...im done ranting because its not gonna do me any good.

you are all beautiful people.

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I am still searching for the movie this quote was in...
"Make you strong, like bull", said in a russian accent
Post here if you know anything...PLEASE!

Stare At The Sun

Heh, i just did a speech about this, i hate it, I really do, one day they will have commercial breaks during the movie, jsut wait

Lord Humungus

dont joke like that...i have thought about that and it scares me. Hollywood should take a hand in this because it means..less movies showing per day meaning less movie ticket sales for them. they should stop this now or nobody will goto the movies.

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I am still searching for the movie this quote was in...
"Make you strong, like bull", said in a russian accent
Post here if you know anything...PLEASE!

smeesh

I hate them as well. It's a pain in the butt that you have to add on another 20 minutes to the show time just to watch commercials.

BTW has anyone seen the "Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man" thing they show before movies? I cant get enough of that guy!

~smeesh

Moskie

I remember hearing a story about a guy in Japan (think it was Japan) who sued a theater for breach of contract, since the movie didn't start as advertised, due to it being delayed by commercials.

So whaddya guys say? Grassroots class action lawsuit?

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Lord Humungus

if you find a lawyer who will do that, you've got my bow...i mean..signature..sorry..LOTR freudian slip

__________________
I am still searching for the movie this quote was in...
"Make you strong, like bull", said in a russian accent
Post here if you know anything...PLEASE!

Cynthetiq

found previous rant and merged thread....

also found this....

http://tfproject.org/tfp/showthread....ht=commercials

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amonkie

ah, for the days to be back in Germany where viola! the movie started at exactly 7:00 with NO previews, NO commercials. Movie theaters as they were intended.

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Mephisto2

I'm going to step in here and say "So what?"

You don't like advertisements? So don't go to movies!

Don't get me wrong. I don't particularly like them myself, but come on! What do you expect?

Welcome to living in a capitalist society.

Advertisements are here to stay and saying that theatres or agencies are "taking advantage of [us]" is like saying that TV companies are taking advantage of you, or billboard companies are taking advantage of you, or large sports sponsorship companies are taking advantage of you....

No one makes you go to the movie theatre. If you don't like the adverts, either pay for cable or rent the movie out on DVD. You are paying for the privilage of seeing the movie early.

And, for the record, theaters DO make money from the adverts. Thinking otherwise is naivety.


Mr Mephisto

Cynthetiq

mephisto,

I pay for cable, and they insist on putting a bug on the side of the screen to advertise their channel, they put a moving thing taking up the lower 1/3 of the screen advertising the new show coming up next week. I paid for it yet I still get advertising.

I buy DVD so that I don't have the commercial interuptions from series like Xfiles, Buffy, etc. I get advertisements on some of the new region coding enhanced discs and cannot even skip them or fast forward thru them. They have incapacitated my DVD play to not allow any functions during that playback.

Okay, I pay extra for HBO, that's currently the only bastion left with minimal advertising, but there is product placement in the Sopranos and the like, they will get more obtrusive as people demand more profits from companies. IMHO, it's only a matter of time.

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quadro2000

I used to love previews. Now they bore me. But I have a solution to your irritation on previews.

If a preview is ehh, I yell out "RENTAL!" afterwards.
If it's bad, I yell out "CABLE!"



As for commercials, I feel like my $10 ticket is enough. I shouldn't be made to watch anything but the goddamn movie.

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chingador

Those really make me mad. I mean seriously. You just paid $7 per ticket, plus around $20 for popcorn and soda, the last thing you wanna see is a commercial for something.

queedo

I think I'm going to throw tomatos at the screen and slash the seats if they don't stop those damn comercials!!!!!!!!!

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